


Psychometry

by EphemeralIllusion



Category: OMORI (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Feels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Violence, Hero-Centric Fic, Hints of Burnt Sunflower, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, It's Going Hurt Before It Gets Better, Main Divergence is Hero starts picking up on the big dark secret before the Ending, Multi, Psychic Abilities, Starts Before The Ending, Trauma, aka Aubrey/Basil/Sunny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-13 00:46:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 47,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29393583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EphemeralIllusion/pseuds/EphemeralIllusion
Summary: [Spoilers for Omori Good/True Ending]Psychometry (from Greek: ψυχή, psukhē, "spirit, soul" and μέτρον, metron, "measure"), also known as token-object reading, or psychoscopy, is a form of extrasensory perception characterized by the claimed ability to make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object.Psychic AU: In world where psychic powers are real, and can be awakened via various stressors, Hero has the ability of psychometry. On the night where he and Kel stay over at Sunny's house, Hero starts to learn the truth behind the Incident. And all it took, was a simple splinter of wood. And a little ghostly help.But can he save his young friends from the darkness that has been eating at them for the last four years?
Relationships: Aubrey/Basil/Sunny (OMORI)
Comments: 64
Kudos: 321
Collections: Quality Fics





	1. A Splinter Is All It Takes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Gen3King from the Omori Discord for enabling this train of thought. We're both going to jail for Angst Crimes.  
> Also thanks to Duplicarto and Nocturno for giving advice and pointing out grammatical issues.  
> Sorry for starting a new project right after posting Fate/Omori - Strange Resurrection but this idea has been resonating with me a lot and I was feeling cerebral so...
> 
> Warning: This might end up being very uncomfortable because of Hero literally experiencing the memories of others whenever he uses his ability to glean information.

Maybe it was because of Mari’s death that he had awoken to this ability, but Hero was a psychometrist. He could sense items that were emotionally charged, and with a little bit of focus, glean memories from the object and experience them as if he had lived them.

It was hard for him to figure out at the time, being that Mari’s death was so distressing and traumatic for him. Maybe it was because of his desire to look for signs of warning about her mental health, maybe he wanted to know why she took her own life so badly it influenced how his powers had finally manifested.

It made him lashing out at Kel, so… so much worse. 

Especially when he was not exactly coherent and his burgeoning powers were starting to come online and he was feeling memories from _everything around him._

Seeing his brother cry as he exploded all the pent up emotions out of him, it was a massive shock to his system, enough to temporarily shut off his powers which had caused another problem with a jammed ability, and all that psychic energy had to go somewhere...

It had taken the better part of several years to re-awaken his abilities safely and get enough practice to control them more actively, so he wasn’t using them all the time. But he doubted he ever fully recovered from that shock to his system like that.

Made all the worse when he learned that trauma was a common thread in the few psychics that existed in awakening their abilities. 

There were the occasional psychics who were born with their ability awakened without external stimuli called ‘Latents’ but they were considered diamonds in the rough, and all the more worrying as they tended to hide their abilities. 

But they often suffered from various issues due to trying to hide what they saw as ‘unnatural’ abilities. There were the occasional few who were well-adjusted, but Latents were a minority amongst an already tiny minority of psychics.

But it was hard if not impossible to actually test for the potential, modern science just wasn’t advanced enough to perceive any tell-tale signs for psychic ability. So when he returned to Faraway Town from college to visit his brother and his family, he wasn’t prepared for what would be a very interesting next few days.

Rescuing Basil and Sunny from the lake that day had been very illuminating, he didn’t need to be an empath to see just how utterly terrified the two had been at the chance of nearly drowning. But maybe if he had been an empath instead of a psychometrist he would have noticed the signs in their behaviour sooner.

Hero hadn’t expected a lucky break in his search for answers on the night that Kel suggested he and Hero stay over at Sunny’s house before he moved away. When he had entered the house that day, he felt a strange sense of unease that didn’t feel normal. He knew that Sunny had shut himself away for quite some time, that his father and mother had gotten a divorce and his father had disowned his son for reasons unknown. 

It was the one thing about the aftermath of Mari’s death that had always confused him, why had he done that? Did he know something? 

Did Sunny’s mother know something and that caused the strain in their relationship? Did Sunny’s father blame him for Mari’s death, a thought that made Hero feel uncomfortable to think about.

Hero didn’t feel safe in Sunny’s house for strange reasons, but he was certain he wasn’t an empath.

Hero didn’t have the aptitude for it despite his affinity for psychometry, but he could always feel something was ‘off’ about Sunny and the house after the incident.

Psychometry was a form of extra-sensory perception after all, so maybe he was just picking up something that an average person wouldn’t be able to notice.

Kel had developed a keen sense of intuition about other people, he wasn’t an empath by a long shot but Kel was unusually perceptive to an uncanny degree that it even unnerved Hero who had grown used to unnerving sensations like this living in the city.

Maybe it was the result of Mari’s death and Hero lashing out at him that had caused it, along with the disintegration of their friend group because of Mari’s death? 

Was Kel constantly looking out for warning signs in his friends and family because of Mari’s suicide?

It definitely helped with his aim if anything was to go by. He was part of his school’s basketball team for a reason, in part due to training and natural gift, but his psychic ability definitely helped for strategising, that’s for sure.

“Something about this place feels a bit… I dunno how to describe it. More like a graveyard than a home” Kel said to Hero once Sunny was out of earshot, letting the happy facade slip for a bit, letting the older brother know that he was not alone in his unease. Sunny had clearly felt uncomfortable listening to him play the piano. Did it remind him of Mari too much?

“I think it's a good idea we decided to stay over then, if you’re worried about Sunny” Hero spoke calmly, trying to keep his head despite all the temptation to focus his thoughts and try and PERCEIVE Sunny’s home on the layer of perception that he was aware of.

Kel nodded, leaving the piano room and heading up the stairs, wanting to check out Sunny’s room and get things prepared. 

Hero felt something creak under his foot, sending a surge of weirdness up his leg that usually indicated he had stepped near something steeped in psychic feedback. 

Hero lifted his foot and noticed that there was something jammed a little between the varnished floorboards. It looked like a splinter of wood, strange. It looked like treated wood, the kind of thing from instruments, but what was it doing jammed there?

Hero closed his eyes and calmed his senses, before opening them, viewing the world on the wavelength his powers acted on. Everything looked like it had been treated with a negative filter, with the colours inverted when he gazed at the world like this. This was the safest activation of Hero’s ability, to attune his senses to look for objects charged with the psychic energy of emotions and particularly intense memories.

Hero wasn’t prepared for what he expected to see when he looked at the world in this way, especially inside Sunny’s house. He didn’t know why but the shard of wood was lit up like a Christmas Tree in the middle of a large town during the holidays. The psychic light blazed around the splinter with such an intensity that it nearly obscured the splinter in his hand.

But as Hero got up, he walked towards the door frame leading into the room, peering out into the hallway. He cast his gaze towards the stairs and Sunny’s room up above. The stairs were like a bright white compared to the dull negative image of the rest of the area. 

It was blinding and Hero wanted to throw up with how much of an assault on his senses it was, but Hero suppressed the urge despite the heavy thoughts running through his head as he wondered why the stairs were lit up in such a way.

He gulped, relaxing as he let his senses go back to normal, the sensory overload passing as he pocketed the splinter. If this was here for a reason, he didn’t need Sunny seeing the shard, especially since he recognised it as important but wasn’t sure from where. He didn’t want Sunny figuring out he had it, since he got the feeling it wasn’t something that was supposed to be found.

But Sunny, as quiet as he was would have noticed such a thing… had someone placed something here? For Hero to find? Hero’s mind started to race, wondering what was going on in this house. He closed his eyes and tried to PERCEIVE once more, looking about for something he might have missed.

  
  
The closet door? Hero saw the vague outline of a hand _beckoning to him_ through the door frame, it made him uncomfortable but he took a deep breath and walked slowly over to the storage room door. He had already noticed that Sunny had avoided looking in this direction for some reason. In fact Sunny had looked confused when he had mentioned the closet being on the left, as if telling him ‘No?’.

Hero gulped and turned the door knob and peered in, and he nearly jumped from what he saw. Someone was standing there. Mari. Or rather, her ghost. It was a dim outline amongst the storage boxes and the chest at the end of the room.

Mari smiled and pointed towards the toybox. The toybox? Was there something inside there, something that was being hidden away that didn’t want to be found? Hero looked at her with disbelief. Why was she only appearing now? He found himself stuck staring at her for a few moments, flicking his eyes between normal vision and his perceptive sight to be sure that he was certain that it actually was Mari there.

Mari must have noticed his stalling, and looked a tad annoyed with him, silently making an exaggerated gesture of ‘huffing’ despite her lack of physical lungs, and then she began pointing more insistently at the toybox. She must have really wanted him to look at what was in there, but Hero didn’t feel comfortable with the fact what looked to be her apparition was here. It dredged up bad feelings from the past.

Hero walked slowly towards the toybox, listening out for the creaking of the floorboards as he watched Mari’s ghostly image like a hawk, unsure if she was the real deal or some kind of poltergeist taking her form. Now that he was closer, the chest seemed to glimmer with unnatural light in his extra-sensory perception, indicating there was something inside here.

  
Hero tried to open it, only finding that it was locked. Damn it, he’d have to find the key. He couldn’t just pick the lock, by virtue of not knowing how. He was an upstanding citizen after all, it would probably make things between him and Sunny worse if he found him messing with stuff that was locked for a reason even if he did know how to pick at an old-styled lock like this.

Hero stood up, looking at the outline of Mari, slowly closing his eyes to readjust his vision back to normal. Mari’s outline was still there, looking at him sadly. Hero leaned forward to try and hug her, only to feel himself phase through her. Oh, right… she was a ghost. But psychic ghosts like the one before him didn’t tend to occur from suicide. Sometimes they did, due to particularly strong regrets, or that their original body could astrally project their consciousness away from their physical body.

“I wish you could talk to me, Mari…” Hero mumbled out, on impulse as they were the thoughts on his mind. It hurt to see her, a reminder that she was dead and not coming back. He still hoped from time to time, that she’d come back. But not like this… not like this. Maybe she could talk, she was just being silent since Hero wasn’t sure where Sunny was within the house. Maybe showing herself to her brother wouldn’t have been a good idea and that’s why she was so quiet?

Hero took a deep breath to steady his emotions as he let his hands land by his side, walking towards the door of the storage room and peering out of it. Neither Kel nor Sunny seemed to have come looking for him just yet, so he slipped out of the room, closing it behind him and hearing the door click shut with a small thump of the door knocking against the frame. He’d have time to investigate it when he found that key.

Whelp, time to be normal, and try and keep an eye on Sunny.

The rest of the night was relatively simple, Hero distracted himself with doing the chores when he found Sunny’s list of chores in his room when he had gone to talk to him. Taking the bin out, cleaning the dishes, taking stock of what was and wasn’t safe in the fridge. 

He had noticed the one plate that seemed to be slick with the grease of previously cooked steak, there was an odd smell about it and he found himself getting a vibe from it. Hero closed his eyes and tried to GLEAN what he could from this strange plate…

===

_Sunny was hungry, his stomach yelling for food that its host did not like giving it. He wasn’t going to get any sleep at this rate, at least until his stomach was sated. He opened the refrigerator, searching for anything to eat, finding only a leftover steak from the night mom had been here before she set out to prep the new house. How long ago had that been?_

_He wasn’t sure, days and nights tended to blend together with how often he just slept alone in the dark of his room. He pulled the plastic wrap off of the plate and picked it up out of the fridge, trying to ignore the gelid liquid that in the dark the boy did not want to acknowledge the colour of._

_Walking over to the microwave, Sunny opened the contraption, watching as the internal light switched on in response to the door opening and he saw the red of the steak’s juices. Crimson like blood. Sunny had to repress the urge to hurl as the negativity washed over him, trying to steady himself despite the constant feeling of self-loathing._

_He slammed the microwave shut with a bit more force than he had expected from his frail body, wincing a little as his body wasn’t used to acting with such energy. Thumbing the keys, three minutes, high power. That’d be enough, right?_

_It was quiet minus the thrumming of the microwave’s cooking, standing there in the dark other than the light of the machine for company, and Sunny looked around himself, as if trying to spot something that was trying to hide. Being alone was both terrifying and comforting for him. Dealing with people was difficult when you could see the colours of their emotion constantly whenever you were near them. It was better this way, safer this way for him, Sunny felt._

_Especially when he could sometimes feel something watching him. Staring at him, the vaguest hint that felt like his sister, Mari. But that couldn’t be the case, Mari was..._

_The beep of the microwave knocked him out of his thoughts, and he opened it up, wincing as he picked up the plate, feeling the sting of the heated ceramic against his skin as he moved quickly to set it on the kitchen bench. He shook his fingers to try and shake away the burning pain, and turned around, walking towards the kitchen counter where the steak knife rested. Sunny didn’t like putting it away, he preferred to have it out and about if he needed it._

_Sunny picked it up, shuddering as thoughts ran through his head and he stared at it for a few moments, trying to keep himself looking away from his arms and oh god he looked. His body shook as he tried to resist the building self-loathing, maybe one cut… no nono nonono stopstopstopstopthinkingthat._

_The boy managed to resist the urge to feel something *bad* as he stood at the bench in front of the steak, hearing it sizzle with the sound of microwave-heated meat, the sound of air escaping between the folds of flesh. He pulled a fork off of the drying rack by the sink and started to cut into the steak, trying to ignore the now liquid blood and juices trickling from the meat as he sliced into it._

_This midnight snack was torture, he had to eat or his stomach wouldn’t let him sleep. He wanted to sleep. Sleeping was safe. Sleeping was better than here. At least in his dreams he was safe. It took a bit but Sunny managed to eat the steak, shuddering as he chewed and swallowed. He didn’t like the taste of it, nevermind the times his teeth clashed against the fork and sent a painful sensation through his body._

_Simple enough for the boy to manage to put the empty plate into the sink so it could rot, along with the fork. But he kept the Steak Knife. He barely made it to the kitchen hallway when his stomach rumbled and nausea overcame him from his stomach being given something that it didn’t have the energy to digest. He bolted up the stairs to the bathroom._

_Pushing the door open, the boy ran over to the toilet and there Sunny found his snack coming back up, choking and spitting as he tried to get the taste of stomach acid out of his mouth, feelings of self-loathing returning stronger with the nausea. He couldn’t eat. He didn’t want to eat. This happened a lot. Too much. It was for the better. Better for mom if she didn’t have to feed a parasite like him…_

===

Hero shuddered as the memory ended and he snapped back to reality, feeling very uncomfortable. Worse than uncomfortable. Unnerved all the more by the sensations this house gave him now. Along with the instinctive revulsion of feeling Sunny throwing up, he nearly spat a few times trying to get the phantom taste of stomach acid off his tongue.

But it was illuminating so in Hero’s mind it had been worth subjecting himself to that since he had felt Sunny’s thoughts. Some of them at least. They felt disjointed, filled with constant self-loathing. The fact Sunny had gone to bed with the knife worried him. Hell, Sunny’s reaction to the knife when he had picked it up sent alarm bells throughout Hero. 

But it did tell him one thing. Sunny was an empath. A latent one at that. It explained a lot about the boy’s behaviour. The quietness, the disliking of smiling, how he used to hide behind people. Hero realised that the onyx-haired youngest could feel and see the emotions of other people, see them as coloured auras if what Sunny’s internal monologue was anything to go by. To grow up with that from a young age without anyone to understand you, it would be terrifying and a nightmare.

It made Hero think about how well Sunny and Basil had gotten along. Sunny was a quiet listener to the others but it was Basil who he tended to actually be emotional around, other than Mari. Was Basil an empath as well? Was that why Sunny was drawn to Basil so much? Basil had the same ability maybe? The one person who could understand what his experience was like?

This was just all pointless supposition, he needed to focus and get these chores done. At the very least he didn’t notice many knives amongst the dishes, which made Hero think that Sunny only had the one or two since Kel mentioned confiscating it from him. Sunny was very clearly not in the state of mind that Hero felt was actually safe for the boy. 

It made Hero worry about Sunny being unable to keep tonight’s dinner down. Even if it was Hero’s mother’s cooking, with how Sunny had been clearly treating himself, he worried he was going to wake up to the sound of the boy puking his guts up as his body rejected sustenance. Sunny was so thin and frail…

He thought back to the conversation he had in the Piano Room with Sunny, remembering how Sunny’s body language was easy for him to pick up on. Kel probably picked up on far more than that, but he remembered Sunny’s expression being cliff-faced as usual, but there were cracks in the facade. His eyes had gotten twitchy a little, only a little but enough that Hero could tell something was wrong.

Hero felt a little guilty for subjecting Sunny to reminders about his sister, even though four years on Sunny clearly hadn’t moved on. Maybe it was because it reminded him about her suicide. As far as he knew, he was the only one who… who saw her body swinging from the tree at first. A twelve year old boy, seeing his sister hanging from a tree. It would scar someone for life.  
  
And for Sunny, clearly Mari and Basil were the few people who made him feel safe. Basil probably took Mari’s death even harder, she probably looked up to Mari for the same reason Sunny did. She understood them. Hero grimaced, thinking about the negative loop Sunny had maybe trapped himself in, that Basil had trapped himself in.

Basil was always anxious the few times he came to town, having learned Sunny was moving away had exacerbated things clearly. Basil was not holding it together, Hero didn’t need to be an empath to figure that out.

It put a lot of context behind some of their behaviours the last few days but Hero gulped, realising that his breathing had intensified. Oh god what if Sunny hurt himself tonight? Oh no, did he still have a knife? Shitshitshitshitshit! Did he have razors? He heard Sunny’s dad left, so maybe all the razors were gone, Hero hoped that this was the case. Oh no, what if they weren’t?

In. Out. In. Out. _InOutInOutInOutThumpThumpThump_. The sound of Hero’s heartbeat sounded like a raucous chorus echoing throughout the room as Hero started to spiral into a negative loop.

HERO is PANICKING.

Hero gripped the rim of the kitchen sink and counter, trying to steady himself as the pounding of his heart echoed throughout the room. He didn’t want to lose another of his friends. Not Sunny. Not his little brother Kel. Not Aubrey, even with what she had become. And the risk he could tonight was distressing. No matter how much he thought he was coping with Mari’s death, he clearly wasn’t. Mari would never forgive him if he lost Sunny. _Mari would never forgive him if Sunny died when he had the chance to prevent it._

Hero gulped, gasping for air in his lungs that never seemed to come. Why couldn’t he breathe? Fear rose in his chest as he kept thinking about potential what ifs. Why couldn’t he calm down? He had to calm down or Sunny… Sunny could die. He had to stop Sunny from doing something. But he couldn’t! Fear was paralysing his body like a viper and he struggled to shift his hands with the growing death grip he had on the sink.

It was then Hero felt his fear start to melt away as he looked up from the dirty dishes and felt something touch him. Something was wrapping around him, hands? Ghostly hands. There was a weird warmth to them, despite their ephemeral existence.

“It’s okay. You can do this, Henry. I believe in you” a voice whispered into Hero’s ears and he looked up from the skin to notice a ghostly figure resting their head against his shoulder.

“Mari…?” Hero spoke in barely a whisper, his throat hoarse from his previous hyperventilating as he gazed upon the ghostly visage of Sunny’s older sister.

The ghost nodded. It felt like her, it made Hero feel like it was the earlier days back when she was still alive.  
  
“Why…?” Hero asked the most pertinent question on his mind. Why had she taken her own life?

Mari looked at him for a few moments, as if debating what she could tell him. Did ghosts have rules about how they die? 

“I can’t tell you that, Hero. I’m sorry but… it’s not important. Not in the way you want. What is… is that you find the truth” Mari said, trying to smile but it was clear she was sad. He could see the subtle ticks in her movement, debating each word that was said.

Mari’s words sent a shudder through Hero’s body. The truth? Was there something more to her suicide? He knew it! There was a reason there were no warning signs. He felt elation, maybe now he could catch who made her do it!

“You need to save them, Hero. Both of them. They can’t do this alone any longer” Mari said next, and any elation Hero felt was gone. Save them?

“W-Why, what’s wrong with Sunny and Basil?” Hero asked, feeling like an idiot the moment he said it. Mari just stared at him, frowning as if the answer was obvious. Neither boy was okay. Sunny was clearly starving himself and shutting himself off from everyone. Hell, the boy’s feelings about the knife had made him worry about the boy harming himself. 

And Basil, Basil was a whole other story, the few times he had seen him prior to today, he had always seemed anxious and afraid, like he was teetering on the brink of a full on psychotic break from whatever was affecting him so badly.

“R-Right…” Hero began, but it made him wonder. Why was she showing herself now, to him? Why not show themselves to the others and give them closure? She could have prevented this entire scenario from getting so bad! But… what if the only reason why she was appearing now, was because he could SEE her?

“I… can’t get too close to Sunny. Whenever I do, I make things worse… he shuts down and starts to hallucinate… things'' Mari was choosing her words wisely, it was clear she did not want to talk too much about the circumstances of her death. Was it regret? Guilt for what her death did to everyone?

“He’s hallucinating?” Hero inquired next, that was bad. That was very bad. That was a sign of something deeply wrong with the poor boy. What was he hallucinating? 

“Like what?” Hero asked next, though he felt like he would regret the answer.

Thankfully Mari picked up on Hero’s unease that was clear in his voice as he asked. “Bad things. I don’t know what specifically, but he hallucinates them wherever he senses me” Mari spoke, choosing her words carefully as she looked towards the kitchen’s entrance to the living room.

“I think whatever he sees is related to me, but I’m not sure. I started backing off when I realised he reacted badly to my presence. Basil’s even worse…” Mari said, letting go of Hero once she realised Hero had his emotions and breathing under better control.

“What do you do to Basil…?” Hero swallowed his anxiety about the answer and asked his question of his ghostly lover.

“Sunny shut down to try and handle things. Basil’s anxiety gets worse and he becomes very… paranoid” Mari said, biting her lip as she thought about the blonde. 

“I can’t get near him any more… The moment he gets the slightest hint I’m near him, he becomes less stable, and even if I’m a ghost, it’s still terrifying when I can’t see what he’s terrified of. Hero, you need to find the truth, he’s really hurting himself trying to get rid of whatever he’s seeing” Mari insisted, trying to grip Hero’s hands more firmly as she floated in front of him, despite her ethereal nature.

“I promise I’ll get to the bottom of this” Hero said with a smile on his face, trying to be brave despite his fear of what he might discover.

“Promise me… no whatever you find out… that you’ll save them and protect them” Mari insisted, her expression serious. Hero had to pause at what she said, how serious she sounded. Whatever he was going to find out, was going to test him, he got that feeling from her words.

“It has to do with… what happened, doesn’t it?” Hero asked and Mari visibly flinched. She looked annoyed.  
  


“Hero, shut up and just PROMISE ME” Mari begged, she couldn’t cry like this, she had to hold it together. Manifesting her ghost form like this was tiring at the best of times, and her emotional state had a tendency of destabilising it.

  
Hero went quiet and nodded. “I promise, Mari…” Hero said finally, even though he wasn’t sure he would be able to hold up the promise.

“Thank you…” Mari said, smiling as she faded out of Hero’s vision. Hero wasn’t sure if she was returning to the afterlife or she was just making herself scarce, given Sunny upstairs.

Hero found himself staring at the dishes again. They could be left until morning, he felt. Sunny’s wellbeing was more important, Hero decided as he dried off his hands and started to head up the stairs, trying to not touch the railings for fear of accidentally tripping into a psychometric flashback and falling down the stairs.

He could get really hurt if that happened, and he didn’t need Kel to freak out over losing his brother, or Sunny to feel the pain of his older brother figure dying in his own house. Hero crept into Sunny’s room quietly, Kel was still wide awake and grinning at him beside the camping light he had set up in the impromptu pile of pillows and blankets. 

Hero heard the flush of the toilet behind him. Ah, Sunny must have gone to the bathroom before bed. Normal thing to do, especially since Sunny evidently didn’t like interruptions to his sleep. Hero waved nervously as Sunny stood behind him after coming out of the bathroom once he rinsed his hands. If only Kel was that stringent about his hygiene…

Hero let the thought drop and beckoned Sunny in. “Sorry for making any noise down in the kitchen... Was trying to do some of your chores before we went to bed” Hero said, trying to make conversation with Sunny. Sunny regarded him with a silent look, emotion hard to read on the black haired boy’s face, if Sunny could feel how nervous and concerned he was for his well being, Hero didn’t see him show any sign of it.

Sunny quietly nodded and walked over to the bed, and as far as Hero could see in the dimly lit room, Sunny didn’t have any marks or scars from recent attempts at self-harm. No new band-aids or anything, so that was a relief, maybe Kel had preemptively confiscated any after the other day with the boy swinging a knife. It put the fight with Aubrey the other day into a darker light, given Kel mentioned Sunny stabbing her despite Aubrey ignoring him during their bout with Kel.

Despite Hero’s temptation to PERCEIVE in the room, he knew it would tip off Sunny. Especially if his suspicion that Sunny was a latent empath, it would only send the boy into high alert to have Hero feeling afraid of what he might find. Maybe some time when Sunny wasn’t in the room? That would be the safest.

Hero climbed into the impromptu tent that Kel had set up and rested against the collection of pillows that Kel had deployed around the interior. He vaguely listened to what his brother was mentioning. Oh right, the cook-book. That was… neat. Useful after all. But not as important as what was on his mind at the moment.

For now he would sleep, he’d have the chance of looking for answers tomorrow. He had to find some answers tomorrow, before Sunny and Basil did something they’d regret. Mari’s begging for him to save them ringing in his head as he drifted off into sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I might end up having the next few chapter up in a few days, depending on how long it takes me (procrastination is pain, and so is like writing emotional stuff since it takes a lot out of me).
> 
> And yes, Ghost Mari has been there the entire time in this AU, unfortunately her brother and his friend being undiagnosed empaths kind of doesn't help when she triggers their trauma every time they can feel she's there.
> 
> If you are curious what the rest of the crew have as far as abilities go?
> 
> Hero developed Psychometry.  
> Mari was born with the ability to Astral Project.  
> Sunny and Basil were born as natural empaths (Sunny can sense emotions via seeing auras around people. Basil gets imagery and stuff related to their feelings).  
> Kel just developed keen intuition and perception. Relatively mundane but more as a sense of psychically augmented hypervigilance because of Mari 'showing no warning signs' and Hero lashing out at him when he was grieving.  
> Aubrey? She developed psychokinesis, it may or may not come up later.


	2. In the Dark of the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hero tries to get some sleep, but it seems other forces have a different thoughts in mind for Hero's search. Struggling to sleep, Hero goes looking whilst the others are aslumber, but will Hero be able to handle what he's able to see from the stuff inside Sunny's house?

Hero thought he’d get some decent sleep that night, but his dreams started to get weird fairly early on.

_Stop looking._

Hero wasn’t sure what the voice was, it sounded… malicious in some way, even if it sounded strangely like Sunny, albeit monochrome in colouration. His mind must have felt whatever was talking was a threat, as the dream quickly tumbled into a nightmare. What was originally a pleasant dream was turning out wrong as Hero found himself in a white space.

Hero gazed around at his surroundings before he decided to take a look at himself. Eyup, he didn’t remember wearing his normal clothes at the start of this dream. He could tell something was off, until he heard the footsteps of something walking towards him. They echoed throughout the white void, and Hero turned around, to behold something he didn’t expect.

Sunny? No, there was something strange about him. A Black Shirt, Striped Shorts… clothes Hero had never seen the boy wear these garments as a child, even when they had their childhood sleepovers. The worrying thing was that this ‘Sunny’ was armed. A knife, that kind of looked like the Steak Knife Kel had given him the other day, having forgotten to give it back to Sunny. 

_Stop. Looking._

The doppelganger of Sunny never opened their mouth, but the voice was echoing once more throughout the dream as the imagery around them shifted from a white void to a reddening sky. The ground beneath them shifting from the safety of a white picnic blanket to… writhing hands that wiggled up against Hero’s legs. The college-aged Hero could hear the steady dripping of some sort of liquid.

The voice had such a strong feeling of malice that also bespoke an underlying current of self-loathing. Frustration without a clear source. Clearly this might be that thing that Mari had wanted him to save her brother from. Was this the source of Sunny’s hallucination? What had the boy done to himself?! Hero made a confident expression as if in defiance of this strange entity, he had made his promise to Mari. This wasn’t going to stop him-...

And then pain. Pain surged through Hero’s body as the discoloured doppelganger stuck their knife into him, and _twisted it_. Hero couldn’t help but scream as he could feel that pain in every nerve of his body. ‘Sunny’ was stabbing him, repeatedly. And he could feel every single wound throughout the entire core of his being. This was a dream right? This was a horrid fucking nightmare!

_You have to stop looking. He’s not worth saving._

The voice seemed to… ‘roar’ for lack of a better word, as the doppelganger stared at Hero with… pity? Did this strange nightmarish entity _pity_ him?! Sunny wasn’t worth saving? Who the hell decided that? He made a promise! Sunny was his friend, no matter how the years had strained their relationship and he was worried for him!

_If you knew the truth, you’d abandon him._

Hero winced as he tried to stand despite the… strangely not bleeding wounds in his body causing him unending sensations of agony throughout his body. This must have been why Mari’s ghost had asked him to promise her that she’d save him and Basil. There was more to Mari’s death than he thought, enough that Mari wanted him to form his own opinion but more than that, she wanted him to save Sunny and Basil from the fallout of whatever the hell the two had done that was related to Mari’s death.

“Sorry, I don’t take orders from strange kids with knives” Hero said, his voice swelling with bravado as the nightmarish surroundings started to crack and fade as he gripped the pale doppelganger by the arm, trying to force them to let go of the knife. He turned his body and swung with his remaining hand, his fist colliding against the side of the doppelganger, and his eyes widened with horror as he saw the doppelganger’s face crack like fragile porcelain, pieces rapidly chipping away at the hole Hero had made in his psychic attacker’s head.

_If you don’t stop looking, I’ll break you like I broke the flower boy._

===

The doppelganger faded away as they gave one final retort, and Hero woke up, his heart racing as he looked around the room. Right. Right, he was staying over at Sunny’s house. He looked over at his brother, still sleeping. He didn’t seem to be twitching or giving any sign of having a nightmare, so maybe it had just been him who had such a surreal experience. Sunny seemed to be still asleep as well, maybe he was unaware of what had been going on?

Whatever this being was, it was connected to Sunny. And that did not leave a good feeling in Hero’s stomach, he could tell that it was not a normal dream. No, he had been very clearly attacked. Specifically because he found the shard, specifically because of what he saw due to that plate. They looked so much like Sunny but they lacked any form of the quiet boy’s warmth. Just… hollow emptiness, and he remembered the scratches up and down the doppelganger’s legs.

Was that how Sunny saw himself in his dreams? Hero was looking for any explanation to try and comprehend the experience he had just had, as he tried to think back on his lessons in first year PsyMed.

===

_The instructor sat there, floating against his deck with a whimsical level of disdain as he glanced at the students in the stands, before clicking a button on a small hand held remote which activated a projector displaying the topic of the day:_ Guardian Entities.

_Hero felt a little bit of awe at how fluidly the instructor casually levitated himself to stand in front of his desk after seeming a little bored whilst the students filed in. PsyMed was only available as a subject to the students deemed to have had psychic aptitude, as the field would be useless to those who did not have awakened abilities, though there were discussions about opening it up to more open minded students._

_“Today, we shall begin with a discussion about the role psychological defence mechanisms can play in the protection of the human psyche, and how the interplay of psionics with them can affect this in young children who have developed psychic abilities in response to trauma” the instructor had spoken. The instructor looked rather young for someone who had achieved tenure, but he viewed the room with this constant feeling of vigilance, like spotting for any kind of particular detail._

_Hero just figured that given the instructor was clearly psychic, then it was related to his own source of awakening. But the topic seemed particularly interesting, though it sounded like it was readied more as a warning for a class about the use of psychic abilities in regards to medicine and care._

_“Now, as anyone can tell you, the human brain and by extension the human psyche, is exceptionally good at defending itself from various forms of trauma. Less so in the case of children, who are exceptionally vulnerable and prone to overactivation of these defensive measures, especially due to how more malleable their brains are due to ongoing growth. This may take many forms but one behaviour in particular is a rather dangerous one when psionics are involved” the young instructor continued, and the way his throat moved distracted Hero a little, it was then he realised that the instructor was wearing bandages around his throat._

_He remembered that psychic powers often manifested in ways related to the triggering trauma in the case of non-Latents, and it made Hero subconsciously shudder at what might have awakened it for the instructor given how young he was. It made him worry about what sort of form Sunny’s powers might manifest as, given how Mari was found on the tree near their home. Would Sunny be able to handle having those powers without his sister, he doubted it._

_“You might have watched various media where the main character has some evil split personality, but this is definitely not one of those situations. Split Personalities, or ‘Alters’, very much do not work the way they do as displayed in the media, despite what it might have you believe. Now, sometimes the psyche does indeed fracture in a way that it can facilitate the construction of split identities, Guardian Entities are invariably NOT split personalities, not in a traditional sense” the instructor spoke, his tone taking on a very serious tone given the topic of discussion. Hero noticed it, the characteristic way the professor twitched when he spoke of something that personally agitated him._

_“Children especially, as mentioned before have a tendency to over-activate their psychological defence mechanisms. In some cases, they create masks or shells so as to be able to function properly, to cut themselves off from the memories and emotions related to their trauma. A fragile psychic armor to protect them from the harsh reality of what had been done to them” the instructor added, and Hero wondered why the instructor seemed to be talking about it like a bad thing. Hero always liked this professor, out of all his instructors._

_He might have been a tad biased, as this was the same man who had helped him re-awaken his abilities after he had shunted them off due to his lashing out at his sibling. Helped him open back up before the psychic build up caused a painful and horrific death._

_“The problem comes in, especially in the case of Latents, is when the psychic in question becomes overly dependent on said shell or container to function. Sometimes it's to be able to handle the darker memories they might have repressed, attempting to process it in a safer environment. Sometimes it’s to enforce a state of mind that feels ‘safe’. But the main issue is when the shell or container develops an ego of its own due to this over-dependance and over-exposure to the source of negativity that is affecting the psychic in question” the instructor said, sighing a little as Hero realised how serious that sounded, even if some of the other students did not. A self-aware psychological defense mechanism to protect the psyche? In a child, it sounded like it would be overprotective by default with how easily scared some children could be._

_“They are not true split personalities, so much as ‘awarenesses’ that exist within the psychic’s psyche, but are able to act autonomously, not shackled by other restrictive measures. In this way they could be considered ‘pseudo-personalities’ due to their own autonomy caused by the acquisition of an ego” the lecturer spoke, flipping through slides detailing various diagrams with theoretical models about the construction of the human mind._

_“Often enough, they are protective, taking their reason for existence to its logical extreme, and with an ego, they can develop their own psychic abilities using their creator’s existing psychic mind” the instructor added, entertaining himself by creating a small ball of air and bouncing it between his fingers whilst he ignored the whispering of the students._

_“Sometimes, when saturated with particularly strong negative emotions related to the reason for their creation and continued existence, they become malignant. And the creator’s personality, identity and awareness risks becoming subsumed into the Guardian’s ego as a dangerous gestalt running under the Guardian’s logic, which is not often the same as regular humans” the instructor droned on, his voice taking on a more grave tone, as if he had personally experienced such things happening to people he knew, becoming a tad agitated in expression as the air seemed to feel a little stale all of a sudden, his particular tick of agitation becoming more clear on his face._

_“Overprotective Guardians might become like this as well, feeling their creator will never be safe unless they let themselves be subsumed by them, in some ideal of ‘protection’. They might even see the idea their creator might recover as a threat to their own existence. And thus will try to sabotage them by psychically assaulting close friends and family when they start making progress towards healing for fear of them being unable to handle it.” the instructor added, staring at the students who weren’t paying attention and whispering before flicking his ball of condensed air at them, watching as it blew up in their face and surprised them as he fixed them with a disappointed frown. The instructor droned on however, talking about stuff related to the subject. It probably was important so Hero continued to write down notes for later._

_===_

Right… maybe Sunny had developed a Guardian of their own in response to Mari’s death... The boy had trouble calming himself without Mari’s help, and in retrospect the boy’s behaviour had been clingy to Hero’s recollection. Maybe that’s what it was for, to shunt off the bad emotions and feelings that Sunny himself couldn’t deal with without his sister? 

Hero mused on it a little as he looked at the sleeping boy, a little terrified that Sunny had developed such a frightening Guardian, enough to attack him directly like this. What did the sea of hands mean? The blood too? Did this Guardian unknowingly slip more hints to him?

Or was it just trying to scare him, to get him to stop looking. Evidently whatever Hero was going to find was going to be traumatising to Sunny, so this Guardian was likely to try and harm him again if he found more. He still had the shard of wood, and he hadn’t checked it out yet. 

Hero relaxed a little, getting comfy again against the pile of blankets and pillows as he slipped his hand back into his pocket where the chunk of wood remained, trying to avoid any sharp edges before Hero bit his lip and braced himself, before starting to GLEAN from the wood.

If it was anything like the plate, then it was likely to be similarly overwhelming....

===

_Another missed note, another note played at the wrong tempo, another note played too high. It was always something that seemed to annoy Mari. He felt anger building in him. Not in his sister, but in this blasted violin. It hurt to play so much, but he hadn’t ever voiced these worries or concerns to his sister. He didn’t want her to think he was trying to avoid it._

_Great another note done wrong. He could feel his sister’s agitation growing. Why couldn’t he just get it? Why couldn’t he be as good as her? Why did he keep messing up? Was he afraid of playing in front of so many people? He wanted to scream as Mari scolded him for not paying attention. For daydreaming in the middle of the chord being played. He couldn’t take it. This was getting tiresome. He didn’t want to do this anymore. He wanted his normal sister back. He didn’t like her looking at him like she was looking for mistakes to point out._

_He knew he was messing up. He didn’t need to be reminded of it. Mari was better than him anyway. Maybe she could just play the piano by herself. She was the one who wanted to do the recital. He just wanted to play with her. But he couldn’t stand the look she was giving any longer as he grit his teeth and just stood up. No he wasn’t gonna put up with this. Mari tried to grab him, as he squirmed out of her grip, looking at her with annoyance clear in his eyes._

_He was always scared of speaking, he tended to fumble in his words. Nerves maybe. He stormed off, with Mari chasing after him, calling out to him. He wasn’t listening to what she was saying, it was all loud static in his head. He just wanted the noise to stop. Why couldn’t she just leave him alone?! He was walking towards their room, he wanted to cool. But no, she was still yelling at him. She sounded louder now. It was all this violin’s fault! If it wasn’t for this violin his sister wouldn’t be mad at him so much! She would be nicer! And so… he spiked it in a fit of frustration, the gift he had gotten from his friends and he watched as it bounced down the stairs and shattered against the ground floor of the hallway._

_Oh no, that just made Mari madder. Oh no no no no NO NO NO NO NO JUST LEAVE ME ALONE MARI!_

=== 

Hero felt the air catch in his chest before he slowly exhaled, not wanting to alert Kel beside him, or even Sunny who was still asleep. He wasn’t sure if Sunny’s strange Guardian could attack him whilst he was awake but he wasn’t going to take the risk any time soon as he slowly got up out of the pile of pillows, being careful with his movements as he stared at Sunny in the dark of the room. 

Hero looked towards the door, frowning. Maybe he should get the chores fixed up whilst these two were asleep, see if he could find anything else of note. He crept towards the door, his ears seeking out any kind of sound as he gave his younger brother Kel one last look before slowly opening the door and walking out into the hallway, closing the door behind him with a small click of the bar sliding into the hole in the doorframe.

“If you don’t stop looking, I’ll break you like I broke the flower boy” Hero mumbled quietly to himself as he walked towards the stairs, hand against the railing as he could feel the thrum of psychic emanations within the varnished wood. The temptation to peer at what was there was getting stronger as he descended each individual step.

Basil was at risk from this doppelganger that lived inside of Sunny’s head, it put a lot of context into why Basil was so anxious, right? A malignant guardian lashing out at a close friend who was also an empath? The poor boy. And now he was possibly still unconscious from nearly drowning. Hero realised he could have lost the two of them today, and he was still concerned he wasn’t going to be able to save them like Mari wanted him to.

He couldn’t deal with some Guardian, he didn’t have any kind of ability to do that with, to even fight against the doppelganger directly if he wanted to. Sunny and Basil were both empaths and Sunny seemed to have some kind of Guardian that could invade his dreams like it was nothing! At the very least Hero didn’t feel any lingering psychic damage from being shanked in his own dreams by some emotionless doll trying to protect its puppetmaster. Hero worried Sunny was going to be strangled by the strings if he wasn’t careful at this dangerous dance the boy was playing with his sanity.

Hero sat down on the floor beside the stairs, closing his eyes as he leaned against the wall, gripping the staircase’s bannister tightly as he opened them, his vision once more with a negative filter. The stairs were still lit up with that bright intense psychic blaze of energy saturated so deeply into it. Gripping it like this, without delving into the memories, Hero could feel the fear saturated in it.

Fear? Who’s afraid? Hero wasn’t sure. The thing was so saturated that he could tell there were multiple memories imprinted upon them. But he scanned the room nonetheless, glancing at the floor where he remembered the violin had smashed against the floor, seeing a psychic imprint against the wood. Shaped like a body. A human body, comatose like it had fallen from above. It looked… like Mari’s general figure.

Hero felt his blood run cold. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions. He was surprised he had missed that the first time he had looked at the stairs. Maybe it was because the stairs obscured it from a distance, but being close to it let him see it without the interference of the stairs.

Was this why Mari asked him to save Basil and Sunny? It wasn’t a suicide was it? Hero felt anger rising in him, despite his attempts to keep it together. Damn it, Damn it, Damn it. He thought he had been negligent in seeing the signs of troubling behaviour in Mari. He thought he hadn’t done enough to make Mari happy so she didn’t kill herself. Wait, what if it still was a suicide? What if it was always a suicide and Sunny saw the true way Mari killed herself? What if his parents had covered up the way she had died?

Was he trying to convince himself that Basil and Sunny weren’t involved in some way? That they were some helpless victims who bore witness to Mari’s death? The thought they might have been involved… the memory from the shard of wood. He knew it was from the violin that Sunny had been gifted that one Christmas. The one Sunny broke in a pique of frustration to try and cope with how he wasn’t able to be up to Mari’s standards?

Hero closed his eyes, trying to calm his breathing. He wasn’t doing well after gleaning from the shard of the violin. He wasn’t doing well at all. He had exposed himself too much to too many bad things in too short of a time but Hero knew he had to get to the bottom of this or die trying. Was he doing it for himself at this point? Wanting to find the truth to assuage his own feelings of guilt, his own feelings of blame for Mari’s death?

He opened his eyes, his vision back to normal but Hero felt dizzy. Emotionally overwhelmed, and distressed and tired from poor sleep thanks to Sunny’s little protector. He bit his lip and gripped the wood railing more with his hand and then… he decided to GLEAN, in spite of the harm he’d do to himself…

He wasn’t expecting the jumbled mass of memories he was going to see…

===

_The boy stepped down the stairs slowly, they seemed to drag on forever. Where was the bottom? When was this staircase ever this long. He started to run down the stairs, gripping the railing for dear life as the shadows started to stretch across the walls in the dim night as the moonlight shone into the house. As he continued to run he could see the mass of hands closing in, that horrifying smile staring back at him from the base of the yawning abyss, clammering up the stairs. He saw a knife in front of him, he ran down and grabbed it, and started swinging it at the creature._

_“Sunny… I love you”_

_The voice sounded so much like Mari despite the horrid visage before him. Nonononononononononononononononono. Why did it have to look like her why why why why WHY?!_

_…_

_…_

_…_

_The boy was crying as he dragged the heavy body of his sister up the stairs, trying to keep her head upwards as he tried to hold onto her. It was so hard. Maybe she’d wake up after a little bit of rest? Yes, some sleep would do Mari some good. She was just stressed and tired from the lack of progress right. She’d wake up and it’ll all be better. Please wake up. I hope you’re breathing, sis. You’re probably just sleeping, that’s why I can’t see the colours of how you feel, right? You’re just sleeping right? Please wake up. Please, please, pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasewakeup. Don’t leave me please don’t leave me Mari. Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasedon’tleaveme._

_===_

Hero shuddered, gasping for air as he stared with horror at the base of the stairs. The strong emotions he had felt, the utter panic as Sunny had tried to rationalise his sister being dead. That she was just sleeping. That she would wake up and everything would be normal. But things weren’t normal weren’t they? But that… THING. That SOMETHING… that Sunny saw. Was that what Sunny had been living with this entire time? Seeing monsters whenever he sensed Mari was near? Did Sunny still think his sister was alive?

Was that why Sunny was hallucinating so much whenever his sister’s ghostly form got near? The cognitive dissonance of trying to rationalise his sister being both dead and alive at the same time? What if there was more to it? There had to be more to it. Why did Mari end up at the bottom of the stairs, dead? Did she commit suicide there in front of her little brother because it got too much? What if the argument they had turned sour?

Hero wasn’t sure when these two events took place, the first event seemed recent, the second one seemed related to Mari’s death at the time. Maybe it was before that too? Maybe Mari had a bad fall and when she woke up she tried to finish the job cus it was past the recital? Maybe Hero was trying to convince himself there was a reason for Mari’s death. 

The bile rose in Hero’s throat as he coughed a little, trying to hold himself together as he let go of the railing, realising how strong he had gripped it. He had basically death-gripped it, and actually damaged the wood. He winced, looking at his hand and seeing the red marks of the wood imprinting against his hand from how tightly he had gripped it. Honestly he was surprised he wasn’t bleeding from any splinters jamming into his skin.

He tried to prepare himself, as much as seeing Mari’s body in that vision distressed him, he had to do this. He had to find the truth. He had to. He needed to. He wanted closure. He wanted his friends back together. He wanted to see his little brothers smile. Yes, that’s right. Sunny was his brother. They weren’t brothers by blood, but they had been closer. Thicker than blood. It was his fault that Sunny turned out this way. He wasn’t there for him. This was his fault. His fault.

He reached over, crawling on his legs as he reached out his arm and rested it against the psychic imprint where Mari’s body had lain at the bottom of the stairs, closing his eyes… and GLEANED.

===

_She wasn’t moving. Why wasn’t she moving? Sis? Are you there? Come on, wake up already. Mari… Mari please wake up. This isn’t funny anymore. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I broke the violin. I’m sorry I made you mad. Please wake up. Please._ _  
__  
__The boy shook his sister’s body, his begging becoming more desperate as tears formed in his eyes. He moved his hands away from her body and stared at them. His hands. They looked red. Red with blood. Mari’s blood. No nO no NO NO NONONONONONONO. Mari is still alive. She’s just sleeping. Yes. She’s just sleeping. Maybe she’ll wake up after a nice long nap. Yes. That’ll help. That’ll help. Yes. Sleep. Good. Yes._ _  
__  
__The boy reached over and gripped onto his sister, as heavy as her body felt Sunny hoped that she was still breathing as he struggled to lift her, he could only hold her by her underarms as he started to drag her up the stairs._

===

Hero wanted to hurl. He wanted to die. Sunny had watched his sister die hadn’t he? This didn’t explain how she ended up on the tree. Did Sunny blame himself for her suicide? The panic, the terror, the bargaining and denial of a scared 12 year old who just watched his sister die before his very eyes. Was that what the red hands meant with the blood? The doppelganger trying to psych him out with Sunny’s feelings of self-loathing and blame for his sister’s suicide?

No. He didn’t have the full picture yet. He needed to know more. He needed to know why BASIL was caught up in all of this. None of this explained why Basil needed saving. None of this explained why Sunny’s psychic doppelganger was attacking Basil. But it explained why Mari’s ghost made Sunny hallucinate monsters and nightmares whenever he could feel her presence. It reminded him of this day. The day his sister died.

Had Sunny’s parents tried to hide the suicide on the stairs as a suicide on the tree? It reminded him of the dent he had seen on her body at the funeral when she was laid to rest. Is that why Sunny’s parents divorced? They argued over Mari’s suicide? About what they had done? About Sunny’s deteriorating mental state as the boy closed himself off to the world?

Hero decided he needed to finish those chores. He needed to think of something else, anything to distract himself from the nightmares he had uncovered. He slowly rose to his feet, trying to steady his shaking legs as he held onto the stair railing for support. He stumbled a little at first through the doorway, gripping onto the frame that separated the living room from the hallway and managed to make his way to the kitchen, gripping onto various objects to support his weight from his uncertain limbs.

Hero had never felt this nauseous before. Had he over done it? Probably. His head was killing him. He needed water. He needed something to just dull the throbbing pain of overexerting his mind like he had. He felt scared. For himself. For Sunny. For Kel. What would happen if he found the truth of it all?

Would he break? Would he try to hide it like Sunny might have been? He didn’t have all the answers. He had so many questions. But for now he had to SOLDIER ON despite everything. He didn’t have enough context. He didn’t know what Sunny and Mari might have said to each other for Mari to fall down the stairs. Sunny was innocent in all of this. Sunny was the unfortunate victim in all of this. The traumatised boy.

But how was Basil connected to this. Had he seen Mari jump? It chilled him to the core. It made him remember how Kel had told him about Aubrey bullying Basil. Did Basil know something? Basil had to know something. All the photos in that album… none of them had been the ones with Mari. Did it remind Basil too much of Mari’s death? Her dead body?

Is that why Aubrey lashed out at Basil, trying to push him into the lake like the day Mari had to save Sunny from drowning? Is that why Sunny jumped into the lake, forgetting how afraid he was of drowning?

Hero turned the kitchen tap on, letting the cold water run down the sink drain amongst the pile of dishes that still needed to be washed. He cupped his hands under the stream of water, collecting some between his palms before he splashed his face with it, trying to use the chill of the water to snap him out of these distracting thoughts. He repeated it until the constant thoughts in the back of his head died down. Much better. And then, he did it again, this time drinking from the handful of water instead of splashing himself with it.

It soothed his sore throat as he tried to hold it together, despite how much he wanted to cry as he picked up the scrubbing sponge and started to wash the dishes. Slowly, carefully. He didn’t want to break them. He just needed something to distract himself until morning. Maybe a cup of coffee to keep him going until well… the next night. The sun was starting to rise anyway, as Hero could see in the distance from the kitchen window.

They’d need to talk to Aubrey today maybe. Maybe then he could get some more context for why things were the way they were. Maybe Aubrey had some spare copies of the photos somehow? He was surprised the pink haired girl was her. She had wanted to dye her hair with Mari. Guess she did, to try and remember her. And now she was the leader of what looked to be a small gang maybe?

It was all his fault the way she turned out that way, right? Hero didn’t know much about her home life, she had always kept it a secret, the topic never seemed to be one she was willing to divulge answers about. That was just something he’d have to find out today.  
  
Right. That was today’s goal. Find out more about Aubrey’s situation. Find out more about what AUBREY knew about Basil and Sunny’s situation. Find out what she knew about her death. Simple enough right? Probably not.

Hero sighed as he drowned out his thoughts with the sound of running water and scrubbing tough baked-on food grease and meat fat off of the plates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure: That professor scene was me transparently trying to do an exposition dump and hint at Omori becoming an antagonistic force the more that Hero starts digging. Don't worry, this still go through to like the Good/True ending path, but Omori's going to be a still existing force despite that. 
> 
> This chapter was kind of hard to write as I was trying to figure out where to take things. I still have a rather clear idea, but I'm going to have fun exploring Basil's motivations in this AU, as well as Omori's motivations as well.
> 
> Hero's in for some pain.
> 
> Thanks to Omoricord for encouraging the idea of Omori getting involved in Hero's search. Or rather, Hero finding out that Omori exists at all.


	3. The Morning Showdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When morning breaks, Hero tries to comprehend what had happened to Aubrey over the last four years. To distract himself, he makes breakfast for his younger brother and Sunny, but a certain visitor asking them for a favour leads to the group making a discovery... one they might regret learning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long it took me to put out this chapter. I've been procrastinating pretty hard on this chapter, but thankfully this chapter is a smidge bigger than usual.

The taste of instant coffee that early morning was like a blessing in disguise, Hero felt more awake from the small sip of the brown milky liquid than he had before he had gone to bed. The question that ran through Hero’s mind was how to get into contact with Aubrey to ask her about things. But Hero felt a little worried about informing her about any of this, for fear that Sunny would unknowingly pick up on Aubrey’s awareness of the stuff Hero knew and that the doppelganger would harm her.

It still felt weird to know that the pink haired girl, full of so much rage, had been Aubrey. With how deep he had found the two in the lake, so far away from the pier, it was more than just a simple shove. Was Aubrey…? Maybe. It was entirely possible. Hero had developed powers due to Mari’s su… her death. He had wanted to be able to find why, so strongly that his powers had developed along those lines. 

===

_“Sometimes in response to trauma, an unknown sector of the brain is activated, and the development of psychic capabilities is ‘switched on’ so to speak” the young professor spoke, calmly weaving string in the air before the class, demonstrating their command of the air as they performed minute manipulations to construct what looked to be a web._ _  
_ _  
_ _“Latents are born with this sector active, and are called this because their abilities exist from the start, and though not developed or manifested yet, their abilities are not caused by trauma and therefore are considered ‘hidden’ amongst the population compared to those who awaken their abilities via trauma and thus are more obvious” the professor spoke, the web of string holding taut as they stretched it as much as they could to secure the knots._

_Hero raised an eye, wondering if the web had some meaning to the lesson, or if the professor was doing it to distract themself whilst they instructed the class. He had never been really able to figure out what was a demonstration to help visualise the concepts they taught, or what was a distraction for the professor._

_“As you can imagine there are discussions about changing the name for obvious reasons, especially since the definition can refer to a disease that doesn’t display symptoms but can be passed on… isn’t very flattering for those born with psychic abilities, as they already face some level of ostracism as it is, and don’t particularly like being compared to a carrier” the professor said, deviating a little from the topic to insert a little of hard reality about the situation for people with psychic abilities. Sure, psychic powers were cool and all, but they were so rare amongst the general population that discrimination occured._

_Hero couldn’t even deny that his mother had looked at him strangely the first time he realised he awakened, as if she could tell there was something different about her son. It made him feel uncomfortable the way she looked at him like he was a patient with an unknown disease that was terminal. College was freeing for Hero to escape that look. He knew his mother didn’t intend to see him that way, she had only made that look when Hero had lashed out at Kel. Given that he nearly died from locking his power down… he couldn’t blame her when the headaches had set in, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t stung when he saw that look._

_“The abilities of Latents are much less influenced by the psychological trigger that awakens powers, but this doesn’t mean they’re unaffected. Incidentally, empathy-related abilities happen at a higher percentage amongst Latents than it does Non-Latents. The psychological stress required for awakening does not seem to encourage such development but it can occasionally happen” the professor spoke, sighed as they rested their hand against the desk they were leaning against._

_“Amongst non-Latents though… The psychological trigger is usually keyed to the psychological stress at the time. Usually their powers develop in specific response to the trauma experienced… for myself… my aerokinesis came from my father choking me at a young age in response to an argument” the professor said, their eyes taking on a dull tone as they remembered their own psychological awakening, as they used their own personal experience as an example. It did make a few of the students cringe reflexively at how candid they were about it._

_It was kind of sad for Hero to see the professor so upset, and yet having to teach subjects so close to the heart. Was this the way they tried to cope with their experiences? Teaching others so they didn’t go through the same hardships?_ _  
_ _  
_ _“That’s just an example… sometimes unrelated powers are developed, but usually what they would need to survive if the trigger was related to a threat to their life” the professor added quickly, and they tried to smile but Hero knew it wasn’t genuine._

_===_

Hero braced himself against the sink as he thought about the memory of the lecture that had become unbidden to his mind whilst thinking about Aubrey. She had always been secretive about her home life, and in retrospect Sunny’s mother had always looked at her with sympathy in her eyes, Hero recalled. It made Hero wonder what had awakened in Aubrey, it was still surreal to see the girl who used to always argue and bicker with his little brother turned into… an angry girl leading a gang and carrying around a bat of nails.

It would be pointless unless they had an excuse to see her. Hero barely remembered where she lived, he knew it was within Faraway Town, but he was completely uncertain. He knew it was near the Church, he had seen her there the few times when he had come back from college in the past, but he had never thought to follow her back to her house, she had always made sure to leave first, and avoid being seen by him and the others.

Was she that ashamed? It did make Hero think again about her potential abilities. She was so angry, and seeing her that day, seeing the facade crack a little and see the look of a terrified girl… psychokinesis? The strength to stand strong in face of any threat? The ability to influence the physical world remotely without expressing any form of physical strain. To punch without swinging. To block without raising your arms up. To protect yourself with only your determination to survive…

It would explain the push being so much stronger than expected from what Kel had told him of the incident. Basil had seemed more like he was thrown than pushed, likely Aubrey had lost control in the heat of the moment. And then Sunny jumped in after her. And nearly drowned… he had nearly lost him. If he had gotten there too late… 

He would have lost his youngest brother. Even with Mari gone, Hero still couldn’t help but think of himself as Sunny’s unofficial older brother. And seeing the boy like he was now, it made him reinforce that idea in his mind so much stronger. The apparition of Mari’s words only made it feel even more important. He would protect him, Hero decided. 

He would protect him and Basil from all the dangers of the world. It made him wonder though if the doppelganger would disagree. Probably. It seemed agitated about Hero looking into the circumstances of Mari’s death after all. Maybe Sunny didn’t remember all the particulars? Repression? Was the doppelganger trying to keep Sunny in the dark? Was Sunny remembering that much of a threat?

Hero shook his head, he needed to focus. The sun had almost risen, and so he did what came naturally to him. He decided that cooking was a good focusing activity to do, so maybe breakfast was a good idea. Hero checked the fridge once more, noticing some bacon that definitely looked within date at least. He frowned, looking at the eggs, there were no cartons to contain them so there was no Use By tag on them.

Whelp, time to test the eggs, Hero decided, pulling them out and getting out a small pyrex bowl, and filling it with water, setting aside an extra dish. He tested each egg, trying to determine if it floated or sank. Thankfully, enough of the eggs were salvageable for making breakfast with. Kel would appreciate the hearty taste of freshly cooked bacon in the morning. He frowned though, thinking of Sunny. Would he be able to handle some?

He had kept dinner down from last night, but maybe he needed to be a bit more careful. After a while, the kitchen was rich with the smell of cooking bacon and Hero smiled hearing the boisterous sounds of his brother. 

“You sleep okay?” Hero asked as his brother entered the kitchen and stood by the counter as Hero set down bacon to cool, using folded paper towels to drain excess grease and fat before serving it.

“Heck yeah!” Kel declared, and Hero felt a little relieved. Maybe that doppelganger hadn’t hurt Kel, but he had to make sure to ask.

“No bad dreams despite the spookiness of Sunny’s house?” Hero inquired, being careful about his wording. He didn’t want to inadvertently sick the doppelganger on Kel after all.

“Nah, nothing. Noticed you woke up earlier but didn’t wanna say anything at the time… you sleep okay?” Kel said, frowning a little as he was concerned about his brother’s tired expression.

“Ah, nothing too bad. Probably just had trouble due to anxiety” Hero tried to play it off but Kel frowned at him, he didn’t see his brother look at him like this often.

“You’ve been messing with stuff in Sunny’s house, haven’t you?” Kel accused, and Hero felt like his brother’s words stung. He knew what Kel was implying. That he had been using his abilities on stuff in Sunny’s house.

“Y-Yes…” Hero couldn’t lie to his brother, but Kel sighed and walked over and hugged his brother.

“I’m sure you’ll find the answers you want, bro…” Kel said placatingly, as if trying to calm his brother from an impending panic attack.

“Yeah… yeah you’re right…” Hero said, trying to sound like he had it together but he knew his brother could pick it up from the minute slip he made in his tone of voice.

Kel was quiet for a few moments and then patted his back, before returning to munching on bacon. Kel didn’t need to say anything, it was the thought that counted for Hero.

“Think you can go wake up Sunny? I don’t want him to miss out, he’s thin enough as it is” Hero asked his brother, trying to cheer himself up and sound jovial for his brother, even if it was fake.

“Doooon’t need” Kel declared dramatically, pointing towards the doorway. Hero followed the line of his finger as he saw Sunny standing there in the doorframe of the kitchen.

Sunny was quiet, standing there and looking at the two confused.

“Gooooood morning, Sunny! Rise and shine!” Hero spoke dramatically, trying to sound jovial and upbeat for Sunny’s sake. Hero knew Sunny could probably see his true emotion, it made him worry and wonder if Sunny would say anything about it.

“Top of the morning, Sunny!” Kel yelled, before scarfing down more bacon. “You better… _munch_ … start eating before I finish it all” Kel added, and Hero rolled his eyes as he finished up cooking another set of bacon. 

“I already ate most of the bacon though…” Kel mumbled, noticing Sunny’s concerned look as if he was expecting Kel to choke on the food. 

Hero decided this was the perfect time to come walking over with another plate, sliding the less fatty and grease-drained bacon onto the plate in front of Kel. “Another lot of bacon, coming in hot!” Hero said, but as he walked back he felt a tug on his shirt.

He looked over and saw that Sunny was gripping onto his shirt, looking away.

“Mm… sorry… for last night…” Sunny mumbled out, the boy sounded a little distressed.

Hero was quiet, but tried to be happy for Sunny’s sake. “I dunno why… for what?” Hero asked, acting as if he was confused by Sunny’s statement, having a suspicion about what the boy wanted to apologise about.

“I dunno why… I just felt… had to say… sorry” Sunny croaked out, the boy clearly hadn’t used his voice in a while with how uncertain the words came out.

Was Sunny aware of the actions of the doppelganger? That was concerning if the doppelganger was THAT autonomous of Sunny. Did it mean the boy was helpless and unable to stop what their guardian got up to? Did he know the specifics or just a vague feeling about what happened? “I suppose if it makes you feel better, we slept decently last night” Hero lied, trying to pass off Kel’s good night sleep as his own.

Sunny was quiet before letting him go, looking bashful as he went to go eat, and Hero started to clean up the stove area, scrubbing the frying pan so that it could be used later. Hero frowned when he thought Sunny wasn’t looking. The fact that Sunny was vaguely aware that the doppelganger had done something was illuminating. It meant Sunny was aware of its existence.

But Hero also knew Sunny probably knew what he was talking about, he knew he wouldn’t be able to lie to the boy that well, not when the boy could literally see the aura of his emotions if the boy’s mental dialogue from the memory was telling the truth.

He watched Sunny out of the corner of his eye, keeping an eye on the boy as he ate, before he heard the ring of the doorbell.

  
  
“Who could that be?” Kel asked, confused. Who indeed. “I’ll… get the door…” Kel said, a little worried since he had evidently picked up on his brother’s concern for Sunny. Kel walked off, leaving the rest of the bacon and the egg for Sunny.

  
  
Hero sighed, scrubbing at the frying pan before setting it down. He nearly jumped when he heard his brother yelling out.

  
  
“Pwaaaaah! It’s you!” Hero heard Kel yell, and he sighed, shaking his head. Who, Kel, who?

  
  
“Ewwww!!! What is all this!? What the heck, Kel!?” a female voice that Hero didn’t recognise yelled out.

  
  
“Oh lord, what has he done…” Hero sighed, and walked off, glancing back at Sunny to see if he followed, which he did. 

Hero did not expect to see a girl, maybe one of Aubrey’s gang, standing there in the open doorway, their head coated in what looked to be chunks of egg and bacon. Oh good grief Kel…

  
  
“Huh? What’s going on over there?” Hero asked, to try and diffuse the situation from the angry girl glaring at his brother.

  
  
“Dangit, Kel... now I have eggs all over me” the girl grumbled, irritated and frustrated with Kel’s apparent expression of surprise… spitting food on people. Apparently.

“Well… I’m sorry, but… you’re the last person I’d expect to be here” Kel commented simply, before frowning. “What are you doing here anyway?” was Kel’s next question.

The girl grumbled, and Hero recalled her name. Kim, maybe? He sorta remembered Kim from when they were younger. Different group of friends but evidently she had gotten caught up in Aubrey’s little gang. 

“I was just about to get to that!” Kim yelled, sticking her tongue out at Kel childishly before trying to calm down.

“It’s just… It’s Aubrey” Kim clarified and Hero winced. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit shit shit shit.

  
  
Hero tried to put up a brave face, but the fact this girl came over to Sunny’s house… had Sunny’s doppelganger done something to Aubrey? Was he jumping to conclusions? Probably. But given how close Sunny was to Basil, and the fact Basil nearly drowned cause of Aubrey, he wouldn’t have put it past Sunny’s doppelganger to attack more than one person for differing reasons.

“She’s not answering her front door, or her back door. Or the rocks we’ve been throwing at her window. Hell, she’s not even answering her phone which is really worrying since she usually picks up” Kim seemed exceptionally nervous for some reason.

  
  
Before she looked at Kel angrily.

  
  
“She was really upset yesterday… I KNOW THIS IS YOUR FAULT SOMEHOW! Tell me what you did to her!” Kim yelled at Kel, and Kel looked offended at the accusation.

  
  
“We didn’t do anything! She’s the one with the problem! She nearly drowned Basil!” Kel yelled, angry evidently in the heat of the moment, his concern for his childhood friend slipping out.

Kim flinched at that and Hero could tell the situation was deteriorating quickly as he found himself moving forward to try and break up the impending fight. He gripped his brother’s arm to try and get him to calm down as he looked between the two.

“Hold on, Kel… If Aubrey’s that upset, we should at least try to do something to help” Hero said, trying to be the mediator once more. This was the perfect excuse to see Aubrey, to see what she knew. To see if she was okay. To see if she was safe.

He doubted she was okay. He doubted she was safe. He remembered the young girl, always refusing to mention her home life or what her parents were like. He had never seen the inside of her home, and thus he was curious if she had ever been really okay.

“This is Aubrey we’re talking about. We’ve all known each other since we were kids…” Hero tried to speak in a placating manner, trying to convince his brother.

“You weren’t there when she pushed Basil into the lake! I told you, she’s different now! We shouldn’t bother with people like her!” Kel said it with a kind of anger he had never really heard from his brother. People like her? The words stung at Hero. ‘People like her’, Hero knew what Kel really meant, but he couldn’t help but associate it with his and her possible psychic abilities. It felt like Kel was referring to him, unknowingly.

“And I was the one who pulled those two out of the lake! Please… Kel…” Hero snapped at first, letting the facade he was putting up slip and Kel saw how tired and stressed Hero was. Kel shut his mouth, nodding quietly though he clearly wasn’t happy about it. 

“It’s true that she’s changed, but it doesn’t change the fact that I still care about her” Hero said, trying to seem more calm instead of the tired, stressed out older brother he was. 

Kel made a face, still disagreeing with the idea of checking on her.

“And even if she doesn’t show it, I’m sure Aubrey still cares about me, too. That’s just the kind of person she is” Hero said, though he wasn’t sure if he could believe it. What if Kel was right? What if she had changed too much?

“I don’t know about that…” Kel’s tone didn’t hide the fact he had massive doubts about Aubrey.

“Today’s our last chance to do something before Sunny leaves. There’s no way I can just let it end like this! We should at least try to talk to her!” Hero said, though with the memories he had seen, he had all the more reason to insist on this. Sunny looked visibly uncomfortable, and Hero felt guilty for the fact he was going to force the issue.

Kel was quiet for a few moments and Sunny looked a tad unsure. Kim was still silent during all this, evidently watching the entire conversation with a bit of confusion written on her face.

“Well…” Kel’s voice showed his uncertainty. “Me and Sunny can tag along… but you’re going to have to be the one to do the talking. She listens to you the most…” Kel added, making his reluctance very clear in the stilted way he spoke.

Hero smiled, patting his brother on the shoulder. “Thanks, Kel” Hero said simply, before looking over at the girl who had been silent this entire time.

“Hey, Kim? Thanks for asking us for help. You’re a good friend” Hero said, and he grinned in a bit of self-satisfaction watching how flustered the girl got at the compliment.

“H-Huh? Err… Sure, whatever…” Kim stammered out, her face bright red as she tugged up her hoodie to try her facial expression before looking away from the lot of them.

She started to grumble under her breath. Well, he tried.

  
  
“Why don’t you head out first? We’ll meet you there” Hero suggested, wanting to get this started rather than waiting around for Kim to move.

“O-Okay then. See ya…” Kim said sullenly before she left and Hero breathed a sigh of relief, before turning around and patting the two boys on the shoulder.

“We should probably get moving, yeah?” Hero said, though Sunny didn’t say anything, quietly nodding in response to Hero’s question.

They didn’t get far outside when Hero heard Kel speak, as Sunny was locking the front door.

  
  
“Yo, Sunny. Thanks for letting us sleep over last night… and for spending your last few days with me. You’re a real friend! High-Five!” Kel said, evidently trying to cheer Sunny up after seeing Hero snap at him earlier.

Kel held up his hand and Sunny… held up his own, unsure of himself. Kel smacked his hand against Sunny’s, but Sunny staggered a little, his footing uncertain.

  
  
“Shoot, you okay, Sunny?” Kel exclaimed, rushing over to try and help Sunny regain his footing. Sunny looked like he hadn’t gotten any real sleep last night, and that made Hero worry as he could see how thin the boy’s arms and legs were, and he shuddered to think of how skinny the boy was in reality.

“Mmfine…” Sunny mumbled out, quiet enough that Hero had nearly not heard him. The boy shuddered and tried to get Kel to let go of him, evidently physical touch was discomforting to him.

Hero watched as Kel fretted over the boy with concern about his reaction, before finally dropping the matter and deciding to just… hold Sunny’s hand. “Don’t want you falling over again” Kel insisted, concerned for his friend’s safety as they trekked past their houses.

Hero could see the confusion on Sunny’s face, as if dumbfounded by the fact his friend was concerned about him. Was Sunny not used to the feeling of being worried over after 4 years hiding away inside that house? It wasn’t living, it was waiting for death, in Hero’s mind. 

The walk to Aubrey’s house wasn’t that long what with Kel acting as the human GPS. Hero had been surprised when he had heard that Kel knew where she lived. But when they arrived outside Aubrey’s house to see her gang loitering around, he was filled with a feeling of dread. The trash sticking out from beside the house, barely hidden from view with the treeline beside it almost distracted Hero from the appearance of the girl’s home.

The house looked run down. Like no one had given a care about maintaining it. Or cleaning it. The exterior panelling looked saturated with mold and mildew, and the eaves of the roof looked chipped in several places, like they had broken away due to rot. It sickened him to look at and made him feel angry. As they got closer to the door, Hero stepped forward and gazed at the wood of the front door.

  
  
He breathed in carefully, and rapped his fingers against the top half of the door, wanting to be careful. He didn’t know how fragile the door was. 

  
“Hello? Is anyone there?” Hero called out, hoping to be heard by one of the girl’s parents maybe. He looked over his shoulder to see Mikhael running between Angel and Kim, chattering away along with the gang that had congregated.

No response. This did not bode well. The air felt charged for some reason, and looking at Sunny out of the corner of his eye made him notice the boy felt apprehensive. As if sensing something.

  
  
“Come to think about it… have we ever been inside Aubrey’s house before?” Hero asked the two behind him as he turned around. Kel took on a pensive look and Sunny shook his head.

“I… don’t think so? She always came over to play with us. I don’t remember hanging out at her house at all… I’m starting to get a feeling there’s a reason why…” Kel said, his tone not hiding his concern for Aubrey’s wellbeing.

Hero turned around, frowning as he rapped on the door again. “Hello? Aubrey? Is anyone home?” Hero asked, this was getting concerning.

“Helloooooooooooooo?” Kel called out to the house, trying to get the attention of somebody, anybody.

Hero tried the doorknob, shocked to find that it turned easily and the door slowly opened with a loud creak. It was unlocked the entire time. How long had it been left unlocked?

“Why was the door unlocked the entire time…?” Hero asked, nervous as he pushed it open more and walked forward.

  
  
He wasn’t prepared for the sight that he saw.

As Kel and Sunny followed in pursuit behind him, the three of them stood side by side as they gazed at the horror that was Aubrey’s living room. Trash. Nothing but lots of trash. Opened cans of food, devoid of their contents with the remnants rotting. The buzzing of flies as they partook of their garbage bounty. 

The sink was full of dishes and what Hero noticed most was the smell of alcohol, especially from the bottles lain strewn around the living room floor. The sound of static coming from a TV with no signal. He could see the cracks in the drywall, the holes showing the foundation underneath.

  
  
The trio walked slowly, and Hero gripped Sunny’s hand to reassure the boy as they walked from the entrance to the hallway door frame and saw Aubrey’s mother. She was just sitting there. Her eyes were dull, no emotion on her face as she just stared at the flashing images of the TV. She looked more like a corpse than a human being with how inert she seemed.

He needed to get Aubrey out of here. Was it just his big brother instinct, honed from raising his little brother, and helping Aubrey and Sunny? Or was it the sheer revulsion he felt at the idea that Aubrey had lived like this entire time without telling them? Was she ashamed of her homelife that she kept it a secret? He clenched his other fist, not wanting to crush Sunny’s hand with the building rage he felt as he glared at the inert zombie that was Aubrey’s apparent mother.

His mother wasn’t perfect, but at least she didn’t make him and Kel live like this. Sunny looked at Hero with worry in his eyes, poking at his shoulder to get his attention. Hero snapped out of thoughts, his expression softening as Sunny peered into his eyes, as if non-verbally asking ‘Are you okay?’.  
  


“Sorry, Sunny. Just… I think I know why Aubrey was always secretive about home…” Hero couldn’t even hide the sorrow he felt for… his little sister. Was this his way of coping at this point? He saw Sunny and Aubrey as his siblings? Was he that desperate to hold their fracturing friend group apart? To return to some semblance of the days they had before Mari’s passing?

Yes. He couldn’t even deny it. There was no point in denying it when the truth was staring in his face. Sunny was his little brother, Aubrey his little sister. And he had to do as big brothers do, and protect his younger siblings.

“Uh… doesn’t look like her bedroom’s on this floor” Kel said, opening the one visible door that wasn’t blocked off with piles of trash, and the rancid smell of an unclean bathroom wafted across Hero’s nose. He wanted to throw up. Kel quickly shut the door however, looking a little green in the face. How did she endure this?

“There’s the ladder to the attic…” Hero commented, and Sunny shuffled closer to Hero. Where as the boy before had always seemed constantly in an emotionless state, there was something about this place that was breaking that facade, and he could feel the boy’s nervousness being transmitted through his skin.

Right… Sunny was an empath. Hero wondered if he could feel Aubrey up above, or feel the emotions of her useless mother. In that way it would have been infinitely more uncomfortable, wouldn’t it? Hero squeezed Sunny’s hand to try and reassure him, and the boy pressed his head against Hero’s shoulder in response, trying to focus on Hero to maybe block out all the feelings he was sensing.

“Nowhere but up!” Kel declared, starting to climb the ladder up into the attic. Hero followed suit, having Sunny go in front of him so he could catch the boy if he fell from the small height. He could tell Sunny didn’t want to be here, and he didn’t blame him for that.

It was a short climb and Hero was glad to see at least this section of the house was well cleaned. He saw the chips and cracks in the wall, and frowned. There were cracks in the ceiling too that let in sunlight. He didn’t want to think about how Aubrey endured when it rained. 

But what struck his notice was the objects floating around the room, defying gravity as he could hear the tear-choked crying of Aubrey as she stood at the end of the attic, leaning against a desk with photos pinned to a corkboard hanging from the wall. 

Hero stepped forward, biting his lip as he braced himself. He closed his eyes, breathing in slowly before opening them.

  
  
“Hey Aubrey! How are you feeling?” Hero asked, even though he knew it was obvious. Aubrey wasn’t okay. At all.

Aubrey nearly jumped at the sound of Hero’s voice, and turned around, and Hero saw that her eyes were red because of crying. 

“W-W-W-What the heck are you guys doing here?! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!” Aubrey nearly screamed it as her hands clenched, as if she was trying to squeeze blood from a stone with how white her knuckles were. 

Hero put on his most mediating voice he could. “We’re sorry for intruding… it’ll only take a bit. We just wanted to make sure if you were okay” Hero said, trying to keep her at ease, since the floating objects around her made it very clear to Hero what her ability was.

It wasn’t one he wanted to deal with going out of control. Especially not with Sunny and Kel here. Kel tensed up, a little nervous as he was eyeing the broken TV floating about the room.

“I’m… FINE… I’m fine, that’s right. I’m fine. I’m completely fine. I’m totally fine. I’m… not fine at ALL! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?! TO REMIND ME OF HOW MUCH OF A FUCKUP I AM?” Aubrey screamed, and Hero knew that her friends probably could hear her outside with how much she was making the house shake.

Sunny looked to be getting more nervous than usual, his eyes wide and Hero knew he had to calm her down.

“What? No! I just… have been hearing some things and I wanted to hear it from you… about what happened yesterday…” Hero said, he regretted asking that question. He had other questions to ask her but of all the ones he had asked it had probably been the dumbest one to ask.

“Oh, you mean how I nearly killed my two best friends? How I didn’t even think where Basil was and just wanted him to get away? How I forgot THEY CAN’T SWIM?! How I got reminded of how much of a monster I am for standing there and doing nothing whilst they drowned until you saved them?” Aubrey demanded, her fists shaking with emotion as tears streamed down her face, dripping down from her chin, only to be caught in her psychokinetic field and start floating around like the room was in zero gravity.

Hero had to brace himself for the pulse of invisible force that had punctuated every one of her statements.

“Aubrey… you’re not a monster…” Hero said, and it hurt him to hear her talk about herself that way. 

“I am! Sunny comes out of his house for the first time in years after Mari’s death and the third thing I nearly do to him is let him drown after he jumped into the lake to save Basil. Who I just… wanted to get away from...! I nearly killed them! Without a second thought!” Aubrey yelled, her body shaking as she choked back a sob, the objects stopped in the air for a moment before they started to spin.

This wasn’t good. Her unstable emotional state was a danger to them all, but the most it was a danger to Aubrey herself. And then Aubrey held up her bandaged arm where she had barely blocked Sunny’s knife slice from the other day, stained a dark reddish-brown from dried and old blood.

  
  
“Wanna know how I got this, Hero?” Aubrey demanded, but it wasn’t clear if she was waiting for a response as Hero moved closer to her.

Sunny whimpered quietly as his eyes widened, and the room seemed to feel… colder. Like it was being sapped of emotional warmth. 

“Sunny freaking cut me with a knife the first day he came out with Kel, trying to protect Basil from me. Maybe he should have stuck it a little deeper so I couldn’t hurt him and Basil anymore!” Aubrey screamed, and Kel felt a little sick hearing Aubrey declare that Sunny should have given her a more lethal wound.

“First time in years… and the first thing he sees me do is… hurt Basil…” Aubrey cried out, her anger quenching and descending into sadness. Hero wasn’t blind to the fact that Aubrey had repeatedly referred to Sunny and Basil with a certain tone of voice despite her distress. That’s what made her rant feel worse, knowing these feelings she was struggling to comprehend despite her current attitude towards the two.

She started to hiccup as she kept crying, falling to her knees as her legs failed her. 

“I’m a monster… not worth saving… so just leave me, Hero.” Aubrey spoke in a hollow tone as she sounded so broken.

‘A monster… not worth saving…’ Hero thought for a moment. That doppelganger. That explained it. Clearly the doppelganger had exploited her already distressed mental state and made things so worse. After all, if the doppelganger was protective of Sunny, then maybe somehow he would be protective of Basil. The two were close after all.

“No, Aubrey,” Hero said bluntly as he walked over to her, avoiding the levitated debris as he noticed Kel trying to get Sunny’s attention but Sunny looked to be… hyperventilating. “You’re worth saving…” Hero began, before she lunged at him and grabbed him.

Hero winced, her grip was strong, he wasn’t sure how much of it was her own natural strength and how much was her augmented strength.

  
  
“Don’t you give me that crap, Hero!” Aubrey got up in his face and screamed.

“Where were you when Mari died? Too busy living in your own head to worry about the rest of us! You always acted like the big brother except when it mattered the most! Sunny and Basil hid away in their houses like cowards, and Basil ruined all his photos of her because he probably couldn’t handle her being DEAD!” Aubrey screamed, revealing the basis behind her ‘justified’ bullying of Basil. The photo album. Basil had ruined all the photos of her? Oh right, now that Hero was closer, he could see that the photos on the wall were only the ones that had Mari in them, the ones missing from the Photo Album that Sunny had earlier.

“When I had no one to turn to, he destroyed our memories of her! Even Kel abandoned me, but now he acts like he’s better than everyone cus he wasn’t as affected!” Aubrey yelled, before she pushed Hero away with intense force behind her shove, sending him careening against the back wall, which splintered a little from the impact due to how weak the wood was from rot.

Kel was about to take offense at Aubrey’s comment before he saw his older brother launch across the room and crash into the wall from what seemed like a normal shove. Kel’s expression as he looked at Aubrey displayed the sheer fear in his eyes at the girl’s capabilities. Hero felt pain, wincing but glad he didn’t feel any blood, it seemed the wood hadn’t splintered too sharp to get through his clothes, despite the hole he was leaving in the wall.

  
  
“Where were you, Hero!? When my dad ABANDONED ME and my mom stopped caring about me or anything at all!?” Aubrey screamed, stomping her feet as she glared at Hero with hate in her eyes, as she struggled to hold it together.

“Where were you when Mari needed help!? Why couldn’t you save her, Hero?! Why couldn’t you pay attention enough! I thought you loved her!” Aubrey accused, stepping forward and Kel held out his arms as if to protect Sunny and him.

Hero got to his feet and slowly stumbled over to Sunny. “I…” Hero stammered, doubt in his voice, recalling how happy she had been up until her death. She had seemed a little stressed, but as far as Hero knew there weren’t any signs of warning. But then he remembered the things he had seen the night before. How there was more to it than that.

“I wouldn’t have been able to change a damn thing, Aubrey!” Hero yelled, he knew that now. There was more to it than just a simple suicide. After all, Mari had died at the bottom of those stairs. Not on the tree like everyone thought.

“Are you just trying to convince yourself of that?! To try and avoid how much you’re to blame for Mari’s death? Because of you, I… no… WE all lost Mari. We lost our big sister because of you, Hero! And I want her back! I want her to tell me it's going to be okay!” Aubrey yelled, seeming to latch onto anything that would let her vent her frustrations over her life experiences up to this point.

“Because of you… I became a monster…” Aubrey cried out, slamming her fists against the ground, the shockwave causing them all to stumble as the girl’s breakdown showed how little control over her powers she really had.

“Aubrey, you’re not a…!” Hero began before dread set in. Why did the room look so much darker? He shuddered, what was this feeling?

  
  
“S-Sunny… you… you okay?” Kel timidly asked and Hero’s attention was brought back to Sunny.

Who was gripping his head, eyes wide and unfocused and muttering something, body shaking visibly despite the distance between them.

“Shouldnthavelookedshouldnthavelookedshouldnthavelookedshouldnthavelooked” 

Hero was barely able to make out what Sunny was mumbling, and the room looked like it was how it might have been at night. 

“The… hell…?” Aubrey began, looking up and then screaming as she saw what happened next. So many hands. So many hands of shadow, skittering up and down the walls, moving towards Sunny.

“Allmyfaultallmyfaultallmyfaultallmyfaultallmyfaultallmyfault” Sunny’s terrified rambling continued, and out of the corner of his eye he swore he could see the faint silhouette of Mari’s ghost.

“W-What the heck is that?!” Kel yelled as he saw something form from all the shadowy hands that had been congregating around Sunny’s feet. A strange figure, floating behind Sunny, seemingly made from shadows, with the one defining feature being a singular eye. 

KEL is TERRIFIED.

  
  
AUBREY is TERRIFIED.

HERO is… NERVOUS.

“W-What even is that…?” Hero asked, he wasn’t sure, the singular eye seemed to look at them in turn, before he heard a voice echo from it’s presence, no mouth to convey words.

_“Sunny… I… love you…”_

The voice sounded so much like Mari’s voice but distorted behind a layer of crackling static.

“That’s… that’s Mari’s voice…” Aubrey choked out, terror gripping her and even Hero had a hard time quelling the intensifying fear he felt when he looked upon the creature.

It was then Hero noticed that it was less that the creature was made of shadow… but hair. Black hair. Like Mari’s. And that eye… it must have been a trick of the light or Aubrey’s statement, but the eye seemed to… move. And then Hero realised what he was looking at.

...Mari. Hanging from a tree. So that proved it, Sunny saw Mari hanging from that tree. ‘Shouldn’t have looked’ Hero struggled to think, this was the thing that Sunny saw that Mari’s ghost had mentioned, whenever Mari’s ghost was around, Sunny remembered seeing his sister hanging from the tree. 

But what did ‘All my fault’ mean? He wasn’t certain if it was the boy putting the blame on himself for his sister’s covered up suicide…? Or if Sunny meant it quite literally and that he actually had something to do with Mari’s death. Blood dripped from Hero’s lip with how hard he was biting it to try and stop himself from cowering like Kel and Aubrey was.

  
  
Aubrey was too terrified to look at the creature before them, screaming for it to get away and trying to hurl an object at it. Being that it wasn’t actually there, and in their heads, the box she threw at the hellish entity phased through it, crashing and shattering against the wall, nearly tearing a hole completely through the wood.

But it must have had some effect, a bad effect. Sunny started to scream, a terrified scream like he was about to die. Hero’s heart pounded in his chest as that enforced feeling of fear seemed to be trying its hardest to crush him. 

Kel was on the verge of tears, on his knees and looking at Sunny with helpless fear. Aubrey looked like she was paralysed by the emotions that Sunny was forcing on them. Mari wasn’t here for Sunny. Sunny couldn’t calm down without her, Hero believed. But Hero knew he had to help him calm down.

He managed to move his body, despite how much it was resisting him in response to what it saw as a threat. His fight or flight system seemed to be going haywire with how much he was defying the deep desire to flee as he managed to grab onto Sunny’s hands.

  
Hero stumbled as he tried to hold his balance whilst forcing himself to eye level with Sunny. His hands shook as he pulled the boy’s hands away from his head and the boy stopped screaming for a moment, gasping as he looked up at Hero with a crazed and distressed look in his eyes, as if he couldn’t believe Hero was real or not.

“Sunny… Sunny, listen to me…” Hero said gently, trying to get the boy’s attention, despite the boy thrashing against the grip of his hands. “Sunny… SUNNY PLEASE…!” Hero said, raising his voice a little to try and focus him again.

“Listen to me… you’ve gotta calm down…” Hero insisted and the boy flailed more. “I can’t! I can’t! I’m trying!” Sunny yelled, his voice cracking due to lack of use and likely lack of sunlight for his voice to have properly started deepening yet due to a stunted puberty caused by his isolation.

“Just… just listen to the sound of my voice…” Hero suggested, as the boy struggled some more before he started humming a little tune. A simple tune, one the boy could focus on to distract himself from his panic attack.

“O-Okay…” Sunny didn’t sound convinced but Hero smiled to put Sunny at ease.

  
  
“Now just… do like me… breathe… in… and out…” Hero encouraged, before he inhaled, the sensation of fear starting to dissipate from his thoughts and he exhaled, his mind starting to clear as he seemed to start to shake off the effects of Sunny’s empathic meltdown. 

“In… out…” Sunny repeated after Hero, and Hero watched as the boy’s chest expanded and then shrank as the boy used his lungs. The dark feeling seemed to dissipate some more, the room seemed more lit up and the creature behind Hero seemed to be destabilising. 

“That’s it… you can do it, Sunny… your big brother’s here…” Hero said in the best reassuring tone he could muster as he rested his forehead against Sunny’s, hoping the closeness of their touch would help calm him. He knew the boy was iffy about physical touch, but he suspected the boy had become touch starved due to locking himself away, and would appreciate a reminder that the Hero before him was real.

“R-Right…” Sunny stammered out, and Hero slowly closed his eyes, opening his eyes once more as he viewed the world in a negative filter. Sunny was blazing before his vision, much like everything he had examined up to this point. And so…

Hero decided to GLEAN from Sunny.

…

…

…  
  
And everything went black, as the visions overtook him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know I'm leaning too hard on Hero's professor for like, world building.  
> And yes, it's a bit of a self-insert but uhhhhhhhhhhh. I got no excuses.  
> Hopefully will like not lean too much on the character.


	4. Morning Sun Played in Reverse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you can see the world in another person's shoes, they say you can understand a lot more about them... but sometimes you can get even more questions than you wanted answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to konekonorenkinjutsushi on instagram (Konekonorenkinjutsushi#3894 on Discord) for the Fanart, be sure to say hi to them! That's right, Psychometry somehow got fan art what the fu-

For Sunny, people terrified him. For Sunny, colours had meaning more than what most people thought they had. For Sunny, how someone felt was an assault on the senses. When he still had his sister Mari to be there to support him, it was a bit more bearable.

For Sunny, who could sense the emotions of others… going outside that day with Kel had been an experience he had never felt in 4 years. It had been bearable when it was just him and his mother. She never really pushed him, watching as her son slowly closed him off more and more after Mari’s death, slowly shutting down more and more.

But as much as people scared him, people were also beautiful to Sunny. For Sunny could see their emotions like an aura that surrounded his frame. Yellow were the hues he associated with Happy emotions, and for Angry emotions it was a typical red. Sadness by default was blue. When it was that simple, Sunny was fine.

It was when the colours were different than just red, yellow and blue… Sunny didn’t always know how to handle it. Seeing how easily people’s colours could change based on a simple word or two had always led to disorientation if not fear. Maybe that’s why the emotions in his dreams were simple. Happy. Sad. Angry. Ecstatic. Miserable. Enraged. And… Manic… Depressed… Furious. 

It was simple to just imagine it like a video game, he enjoyed the world of his dreams. Where he was OMORI. Not Sunny. He didn’t want to be Sunny. But maybe being Sunny would be okay. He had Kel. And now he had Hero to help. Omori was helpful sometimes, but Omori scared Sunny sometimes. That night had been no different, Hero had been acting a bit weird. Even in the dark, Sunny could see his emotions, and they were colours to which Sunny didn’t know how to translate.

But he got the general idea. Suspicion. Sadness. Regret. But he got the feeling that Hero was hiding something. Secrecy. Did he know something? He didn’t know why, but there was something off about how Hero was acting around him. Pity? Did Hero pity him for how deeply Mari’s death had affected him? No, it was something else. Maybe he could ask Omori about it later. Omori was always helpful. Helped him forget the bad stuff. But not even Omori could erase the self-loathing that Sunny felt.

He was a monster. He didn’t know why he thought that. But he was. He felt it with his entire core and being. He hated himself. He hated his abilities. He didn’t want to feel. He hated his body. He hated his entire existence. He just wanted to stop existing. 

Sunny wasn’t stupid, he knew where Hero had been looking when he had had entered his bedroom that night after he had used the bathroom. Looking for marks. Looking for scars. Looking for the wounds the monster did to themself.

The sleep that night had been uncomfortable. The fog, conquering his fear of water, his sister… passing on. Going to the bottom of the ocean, freeing his friends, then taking the trek all the way through the Deeper Well.

And finally that whale. The last few keys he needed to unlock that place. Omori wasn’t going to stop him now. He didn’t know why he had kept pushing and pushing at the search for those keys. Maybe it was the influence of Kel, to find out why he felt the way he felt. He wanted to be happy like Kel. He wanted to be angry like Aubrey. He wanted to be sad like Hero.

But when he delved into the hole deep in Black Space. He wasn’t ready for the THINGS that he saw. The ghostly images of Basil, shrouded in darkness, staring at him with their piercing white eyes. The many times he saw Basil die in horrific pain. 

Why was he so fucked up? Why would he dream those things? But what made it worse… each time he felt like Basil was really there. That couldn’t be right, could it? Every Basil, every shadow of him, even the Basil in the Cathedral had seemed like they were the real Basil.  
  


The Basil he had seen that day. Was… was he a bad person? Was he really a monster? Was he hurting his friend? He vaguely remembered how cheerful and happy Basil had been. He thought? He wasn’t sure. The memories were so blurry. Details missing. As if they had been expunged from his memory like they were cutting them directly off of the movie reel during the final stages of production of a big movie.

But to see him now… he was... so anxious and scared about everything. Why? Why was he like that? Why did he seem so nervous to be around him? But why did he want to stay around him? Why did he push him away when he needed help? He was always there for him when he was younger. He was always there for Basil when he was younger. 

They were two peas in a pod. They both were born empaths. He saw people’s emotions like coloured auras in addition to sensing them from proximity. Basil… Basil saw pictures, figments of their memories associated with those emotions. Maybe that’s why Basil always liked photography. Hard solid evidence that his experiences were real. He felt guilt for Basil. He was why those photos were damaged, not Basil.

That one room in that black abyssal place. Black Space. The photos on the beach shore. He had damaged them, taken a marker to them even. He didn’t know why. Did he hate Mari? To remove any reminders of her death? Basil had known the truth, hadn’t he? He must have seen that he had done it? Why didn’t he tell the truth? Did he think no one would believe him that Sunny, sweet little Sunny had done it?

It should have been obvious. Sunny was a monster. That was the truth of things. Despite his missing memories, Sunny knew that. He didn’t know why he knew that. He was a monster. A parasite. Living in a home with a mother who tried to be there for him but couldn’t. He slept because it was easier to live in his own dreams than try and cope with the fact he hated every single fibre of his own being. 

Must have been why his mother never tried to get him to open up after Mari’s death. Mari was always better, and he… was just the second child, a convenient replacement that not even his father had wanted. A failed replacement. But when he woke up he felt odd, a feeling of guilt. A guilt for what? Had he done something? Had Omori done something? The last thing he remembered was traversing through that door in Black Space that had glowed red. Deciding to save Basil…

And the throne of hands. Red hands. Slick with blood. But when he had sat down on that throne, he had felt pushed out of his body… and found himself staring at himself. Or rather… staring at Omori, sitting on the throne of hands. Looking down at him. Judging him for some sin he couldn’t even remember.

What had he done? Sunny found himself staring at his hands, noticing how much they were shaking. His stomach growled when he smelt the scent of bacon and eggs in the air. Who was… oh right, Kel and Hero had stayed over last night. Hero must have found what was left in the fridge, what little remained and what Sunny hadn’t ever found the energy to use. The steak that night had been something simple enough to reheat, but he couldn’t even have held it down.

Cooking eggs and bacon was too complicated for him.

Cooking in general was too complicated for him.

Remembering to eat was too complicated for him.

He hated eating. It tasted like ash in his mouth. He didn’t know why, but he had to do it. But he hated it. But he remembered Hero’s cooking was nice, he believed. Maybe he was misremembering things. He pulled himself out of bed and made the steady trek downstairs. It was daytime, he didn’t need to worry about SOMETHING now. It was daytime. It couldn’t hurt him here… right?

The wood of the stairs seemed a bit off for some reason. Sunny wasn’t sure why, they usually felt a certain way after something happened. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but something had. The stairs and floor felt so strongly of sadness, a sadness he couldn’t comprehend that well.

When he stepped into the kitchen, Sunny stood blank faced as he usually did, having expected it to be empty since his mother wasn’t here. He was confused when he realised Hero and Kel were in the kitchen as it felt so surreal to have people he once knew over at all. Hero’s and Kel’s face kept flickering in between his dreamed memories of them and their real faces, as if he was trying to convince himself that they were the same people he once knew.

“Gooooood morning, Sunny! Rise and shine!” Hero had said, but as he looked at him, despite the happiness of his voice and his expression. He could see a dull steel greyish blue around him. He was lying about how happy he was. Right… Mari was gone. Hero didn’t have much to be happy about but why was he faking on his account? Was he sad he had to cook for a monster like him?

“Top of the morning, Sunny!” Kel at least seemed to be yellow. A bright yellow. Like he usually was. That was comforting. At least Kel was being honest with him. 

“You better… _munch_ … start eating before I finish it all” Well, that was Kel alright. Always hungry. Seemed he had gotten even hungrier in the last four years.

He wondered how Kel could stomach eating, concerned that Kel would choke on the bacon. Didn’t it taste like ash to him as well? Maybe he was just broken in some way. Defective. He was a monster after all. Maybe being a monster meant he couldn’t enjoy things like normal humans could. 

“I already ate most of the bacon though…”. Kel said it like he was embarrassed, maybe he had noticed how worried Sunny was about him choking?

Sunny walked forward and sat down on the stool in front of the counter, opposite Kel who was scarfing down bacon. He reached over and grabbed a small piece of bacon, and nibbled it, the voices of the others drowning out as he retreated into the safety of his own head, he almost didn’t register Hero being beside him, only looking up when he heard the clatter of Hero sliding the new lot of bacon and cooked eggs onto the plate in front of him and Kel. 

He barely heard what Hero had said, he said something but as he saw Hero turning to leave he knew he had to say something. The guilt he had woken up with was eating at him.

“Mm… sorry… for last night…” it came out quieter than he had intended, his voice hurt when he tried to use it, listening to the crack and warbling of his own maladjusted voice reminded Sunny about how long he had been indoors. 

Hero seemed to freeze up, quiet as he looked at Sunny. Sunny felt a little nervous seeing Hero’s expression. He seemed abashedly happy from his expression but his aura told a different story. Was he nervous too? Did he know something about why he felt guilty?

  
“I dunno why… for what?” Hero’s voice carried that ungenuine tone. He was trying to sound more confused, like his comment had come out of the blue about an unknown topic. But he could tell that Hero knew what he was apologising for. Why was he trying to seem like he wasn’t?

“I dunno why… I just felt… had to say… sorry” Sunny croaked out, his throat felt like it was on fire with how painful it was to talk. How dry his throat was, his vocal chords protesting an action that he probably hadn’t taken in years. He had always written down things he wanted to say, or tried to do sign language.

Speaking was too much effort, he was afraid to speak, afraid of what he might say. Maybe it was Kel’s influence that he was speaking again, despite the pain it brought him. 

“I suppose if it makes you feel better, we slept decently last night” Sunny heard Hero say. He was lying. Why was he lying? He could tell he was lying. His happy expression did not match his aura. And he could tell Hero knew that he could tell he was lying. Did Hero know he was a monster?

Sunny mulled it over before letting Hero’s shirt go, looking back at the bacon and eggs and trying to distract himself by forcing himself to eat. He felt embarrassed and shy. Hero knew he wasn’t normal, right? He looked up occasionally, trying to hide the fact he was looking from Hero, noticing that Hero had been doing the same.

Did Hero not trust him anymore? He was frowning. Was he mad at him? What had he done last night to him? The blue aura around Hero seemed to be changing a little, Sunny didn’t know what it meant. Worry? Maybe, but Sunny hated this about the real world. In his dreams things were so much simpler, so easier to understand… is what he would have said had he not encountered Black Space. 

Black Space didn’t make sense. Why did he dream those things there? What did they mean? 

The doorbell rings, and he heard Kel talk something about going to get it. He was worried judging by the tone of voice. Had he done something? Was it the police? At least he had more bacon and eggs to himself… is what he would have said if he hadn’t heard Kel scream.

So much for breakfast, though at least he had something. He didn't know why, but he had liked the bits of bacon he had tried. There was something about them that tasted different to him. Was it because it was Hero cooking it? It made Hero’s behaviour hurt worse. He missed Hero’s cooking.

He heard Hero say something, and then walk off towards the living room, though Sunny decided to follow, setting down the remaining half of a piece of bacon he had been chewing at. Hero looked back at him, maybe to just keep an eye on him. Maybe Hero felt safer if the monster was in sight at all times. 

The conversation in the lounge room seemed to be heated, the girl… Kim seemed upset, and a blue Aura that matched the hue that Hero had earlier, the same kind of colour of what Sunny assumed to be the one associated with feelings of worry. 

Kim and Kel seemed to bicker for a bit, before he heard Kim raise her voice then, a singular name stuck out to him.  
  
“It’s just… It’s Aubrey” Kim had said and Sunny flashed back to the angry pink haired girl. She was so different now to Aubrey in his dreams. Had it really been four years? And then Sunny remembered what he had done the other day. He had taken a knife to her, sliced into her arm like it was nothing. Everyone else had seemed horrified he had done that, even Kel.

She must have been okay since they argued at the church later that day and then there was the incident at the lake. He remembered the old Aubrey fondly, remembering how weird he had felt around her when they were younger, he couldn’t remember the details specifically. Just the sensations. The same kind of sensations he got when he was around Basil. 

What was that what Hero had referred to as a ‘crush’? It didn’t matter. Aubrey wouldn’t like a monster like him, not now, not ever. She hadn’t known he was a monster, but he doubted she’d have feelings for him like she used to. 

He heard more yelling, Kim and Kel yelling at each other again. He tried to tune it out but then “She nearly drowned Basil!” was the next few words that Sunny couldn’t tune out. 

Oh right... Aubrey had nearly killed Basil. And he had nearly drowned trying to save Basil. But Hero had pulled them out of the water, though he wished Hero had left him at the bottom of the lake. Basil was less of a monster than him… Basil deserved to be saved. Basil needed to be saved.

Right… he had to save Basil. Save him from Something.

“Hold on, Kel… If Aubrey’s that upset, we should at least try to do something to help” Sunny heard Hero say. Hero was the responsible one of them, at least he was growing up. 

But he could see Hero’s aura, and it seemed to be a bit brighter in intensity. He was worried about her. Did something happen to her that Hero knew about? She had always been tight lipped about her home life, even to him. 

“This is Aubrey we’re talking about. We’ve all known each other since we were kids…” Hero said, and Sunny could hear the desperation building in Hero’s voice. It made him feel a little on edge, why was Hero trying so hard to convince Kel? Why didn’t he go by himself?

“You weren’t there when she pushed Basil into the lake! I told you, she’s different now! We shouldn’t bother with people like her!” Kel’s words were said in the heat of the moment but that didn’t mean they didn’t sting. People… like her… he didn’t know why but it made Sunny shudder a little. It felt like an accusation for some reason. Especially when he saw Hero’s response.

Hero looked like he had been wounded by Kel’s words, as if he had taken some personal injury due to Kel’s passion driven words. Sunny wasn’t expecting Hero’s next response, since to him it was surprising from what he remembered about Hero.

“And I was the one who pulled those two out of the lake! Please… Kel…” Hero sounded angry at first but now he seemed even more desperate to Sunny. Was Hero trying to save Aubrey? Like how he wanted to save Basil?

Sunny… wanted to save Aubrey. Sunny wanted to save Basil. He wanted to save them both. But he… knew he was too much of a monster for either of them to love. He didn’t want to choose between them. He wanted them to love him. Both of them.

Was that such a crime? To want to be happy? Yes. He didn’t deserve to be happy. Not after… not after what? He didn’t know. He had done something. He didn’t know what. The nightmares and SOMETHING were a punishment for a sin he couldn’t remember. He was too tainted with his forgotten crime to deserve Aubrey and Basil’s love.

Love. It’s what he craved the most. But how could he ever love another person, when the concept of loving himself was such an abhorrent anomaly, an irregularity, an unknown possibility? He hated himself too much, thus he did not deserve the love of another person. He did not deserve Hero looking out for him, or Kel. But his heart ached for both Aubrey and Basil, even if he knew, somehow, that they would not reciprocate. If they knew of his crime...

“It’s true that she’s changed, but it doesn’t change the fact that I still care about her” Hero’s words were… reassuring. He was that kind of person, especially since he helped break up the arguments between Kel and Aubrey. Those two went together like oil and water. Like gas and fire. Like… stairs and…

Stairs and… his mind seemed to fizzle when he thought about the stairs of their family home. His breathing caught in his throat and he had to put effort into inhaling and exhaling, trying to keep himself seem normal. Why couldn’t he think of the other thing that stairs didn’t go with? 

“Today’s our last chance to do something before Sunny leaves. There’s no way I can just let it end like this! We should at least try to talk to her!” Hero’s voice cut through the static that was enveloping Sunny’s mind, and Sunny stared at Hero’s face.

Sunny was uncomfortable with seeing her. How could he see her? How could he be around her when he was like this? He wanted to run up the stairs and go back to sleep. 

He had thought of something he shouldn’t have. He was struggling to think, the rest of the conversation was forming the basis of an anchor to keep himself from drowning under the growing seas of uncertainty. Anchor. Anchor. Anchor. He just had to keep thinking about anchors. Anything but the thing that he didn’t want to think about. Anchor. Anchor. Anchor.

“We should probably get moving, yeah?” Oh right he was supposed to be listening to Hero, and he nodded in response to Hero’s question. He was silent. He didn’t trust his current state of mind with his voice. Kim seemed to head out, and it wasn’t long until they followed after. Oh right he should lock the house. Don’t want anyone to steal their things whilst they’re nice and packed up. 

He pulled the keys out, and locked the house, double… no triple checking the lock to make sure it took. Paranoia was getting the best of him. He tugged at the door handle, trying to ensure the front door was locked.

He tried the door handle a little, turning the knob and feeling the resistance of the lock. Eyup. 100% locked. Good.

“Yo, Sunny. Thanks for letting us sleep over last night… and for spending your last few days with me. You’re a real friend! High-Five!” Oh right, Kel was right there. A real friend? He wasn’t a real friend. He was a monster pretending to be a friend, pretending to be human. He stood there for a few moments, unsure of how to react.

He didn’t want to make Kel sad, he wasn’t heartless. Was he? No, he wasn’t, Sunny decided. He was a monster, but not heartless. He could tell Kel was trying his best to make him as Happy as he was. He wasn’t sure it’d work, but when he saw Kel holding up his hand, he held up his own, looking away from the two.

Kel’s hand felt like a sting with how quickly and how hard his hand collided with his frail hand. It stung so much, like many points of pain burning into his hand as he had to take a step back from the force of the impact. He stumbled a little, his leg didn’t feel like it wanted to stay steady, the jolt of pain was enough to ruin his sense of balance somehow. Was he too distracted in his own thoughts?

  
  
“Shoot, you okay, Sunny?” Kel asked, and he could hear the concern in his voice as the hyperactive basketballer grabbed him to try and steady his footing. It felt weird to be grabbed like this, hands on the upper arms to make sure he didn’t fall on his ass and bash his head open on the pavement. He felt like he would have preferred it if Kel’s hands were further up. Clasping around his…  
  
“Mmfine...” he lied, his voice squeaking as he didn’t put much effort into saying it, before squirming his shoulders. 

Sunny didn’t want Kel touching him. The touch felt wrong, it was like burning on his skin. He had lost any right to be held like that, to be saved from hurting himself. Kel eventually let go the more he tried to get out of his grasp.

“Dude, seriously… you’re not okay…” Kel said simply, Sunny couldn’t lie that well to Kel. That or Kel was just that observant that it didn’t matter how much he tried to use his skills at trying to pretend he had it together. He said nothing until he felt Kel grab his hand, holding on tight like he was a liferaft in the middle of a storm that had caused a ship to sink. 

“Don’t want you falling over again” Kel said, his tone firm but seeing Kel look at him like that made him feel… bad. Why was he doing this for a monster like him? Why was Kel so nice to him? He got him beaten up by Aubrey’s gang the other day, what had he done to deserve such… kindness?

It honestly baffled him how Kel was so nice in general but especially to him. He had barely put any effort into this, after all he was leaving tomorrow. He’d probably never be able to see or talk to them ever again. It was what he deserved.

Well, guess this was happening. He couldn’t just walk away, not without Kel running after him. Running away would be more trouble than it was worth. The trek towards Aubrey’s house wasn’t that long, all things considered but compared to the other day the place just felt more… ominous.

The house looked wrong. Sunny hadn’t noticed it the other day, but he could see all the cracks and sign of disrepair the house was in, and judging by the shifting hues on Hero, he could tell that it distressed him to see the house like this. As Hero walked towards the house, Sunny helplessly followed, led along by Kel as he glanced over at the Hooligang in the corner of his eyes. Kim had that worrisome blue around her but the others maybe hadn’t noticed the feel of the house or they were just used to it as they shimmered with a bright yellow. Happiness.

They just wanted their friend to come down and play with them. He couldn’t blame them, but there was something about this place that felt worse. He heard the tapping of Hero’s fingertips against the old wooden door with no sounds coming from inside. 

What was he feeling? He didn’t like this feeling, it wasn’t a good feeling but it felt familiar to him. But what was worse was the feeling of anger he felt coming from… above? Was Aubrey okay?! His body shuddered and the sensations of worry and dread seemed to intensify. 

“Come to think about it… have we ever been inside Aubrey’s house before?” Hero had asked when there was no response from the door. 

Sunny racked his thoughts, trying to think through his hazy memories as he was honestly unsure about the answer. Nothing came to mind, the safer answer would be… no. He shook his head, as far as he was aware… Aubrey had never liked to talk about home. Or her parents.

“I… don’t think so? She always came over to play with us. I don’t remember hanging out at her house at all… I’m starting to get a feeling there’s a reason why…” Kel said, and Sunny noticed him taking on that worrisome blue. 

There was definitely a reason why. She had always been adamant about them not coming over to her house. Kel was worried. This wasn’t good. Kel was sunshine. Kel was happiness incarnated. Why was he sad?

Sunny watched as Hero knocked at the door once more, more insistent this time. “Hello? Aubrey? Is anyone home?” Hero called out and Sunny could catch the hint of panic in his voice. 

“Helloooooooooooooo?” Kel called out next, and Sunny felt all the more uneasy if his friends were concerned about Aubrey’s wellbeing like this. Something bad had happened, hadn’t it? Why was this feeling so familiar?

What was he sensing? What was he picking up? The closest colour he could associate it with… black. The colour of the abyssal void he had visited in his dreams. Wait no, maybe it was a dark grey? 

Hero tried the door knob, and Sunny breathed in softly as the door opened up. Oh, it wasn’t locked? Why hadn’t the Hooligang just knocked and walked in? Why did they need to go in and see her? “Why was the door unlocked the entire time?” Hero had asked, and Sunny wanted an answer to that as well.

Hero entered the house and Kel led him inside and… he was glad he was holding Kel’s hand now. What the hell was this…? Trash, and bottles of some unknown liquid strewn about. This was no home, it was a pig sty. Even that was an inadequate, because at least pigs were rather clean and had a reason for their environment being like that. This place had no excuse.

The most distracting thing had been the sound, from the TV emitting nothing but static noise as disparate colours flashed across its glass surface. Someone was sitting in front of it, he could only see the back of their head but the colour of their aura. Blackish grey. What was this colour? It wasn’t fear. It… it was worse. Sunny knew this feeling. Why did he know this feeling?! 

_“It’s what you want to be, isn’t it?”_

He heard his own voice echo in his head and he felt fear start to build inside him as Hero grabbed his hand as they walked forward. Oh thank god that Hero was here. He tore his eyes away from the figure on the couch and tried to focus himself on Hero. Hero was safety. Hero was a light in this dark place. But he saw the aura around Hero starting to change. It disappeared for a second to indicate a shift more fully into another emotion. Red. Red like anger and rage.

  
Hero was… ANGRY.

Hero was angry at this… place that Aubrey had been living in. Sunny did not want this for Aubrey, but he found it hard to feel angry. Maybe it was this oppressive feeling of dread he could sense that was more distracting than the injustice that Aubrey lived in.

He heard the tightening of Hero’s other hand, and he saw how white his knuckles were with that growing aura of red getting around him.

  
  
Hero was… ENRAGED?

Sunny looked at Hero’s face, he wasn’t okay was he? He reached up and poked at Hero’s attention. Anything to distract Hero from this nightmare. It seemed to work, and Sunny looked at Hero a bit more, trying to see how he was feeling. Would Hero’s mismatch this time?

Hero must have picked up on his concern, it showed in his body language when he spoke next.

  
  
“Sorry, Sunny. Just… I think I know why Aubrey was always secretive about home…” Hero said, and Sunny could hear the sheer sadness that was bleeding through Hero’s wavering voice. He was trying to hold it together, and Sunny could tell he was struggling.

He didn’t blame him. This place was terrible. He hated this place. It scared him. He wanted to be anywhere but here.

“Uh… doesn’t look like her bedroom’s on this floor” Kel said as he walked ahead and opened the bathroom door, and Sunny almost retched from the smell that came out of it from days old laundry that hadn’t been touched in possibly months. He could smell the odour from the unclean toilet and it almost made him want to vomit the little breakfast he had managed to eat that morning.

Thankfully Kel shut the door with a slam. No response from around but Sunny could feel the sadness and anger from up above. And unfortunately, Sunny had a feeling as to who it belonged to. The person they hadn’t seen in the house yet. Aubrey. 

“There’s the ladder to the attic...” Hero pointed out. Sunny didn’t want to go up and so he shuffled closer to Hero, gripping onto him for support. He didn’t want to go up. He had to go up. But Sunny didn’t want to. He hadn’t realised that Hero could feel the nervousness he was feeling right now. All that anger and sadness above, and the void he felt down here was too much.

Hero squeezed his hand, and Sunny looked up for a few moments, seeing the smile on Hero’s face. He knew Hero was faking it, but it was the thought that counted. He pressed his forehead against Hero’s shoulder, trying to tune out everything. He wanted to stop feeling these things that he was feeling.

“Nowhere but up!” Kel declared, scrambling up the ladder like a practiced monkey. It was then he realised Hero intended him to go next. Not himself. Oh…

If he went up he couldn’t climb down and run away. Hero didn’t trust him not to run away. He couldn’t blame him, it was testing all his willpower to not run. 

_“You can’t get out of this, Sunny”_

Shut up. Shut up. Just SHUT UP! He knew that! This was Aubrey, this was important. He wanted to spite the voice and shell he wore when in his dreams as he gripped the ladder, and started to climb after Kel. Hero followed behind him, to stop him from running. At least if he fell, Hero could catch him before he broke his head on the ground.

_“It wouldn’t be the first time someone broke something from a fall”_

What did that mean? It felt like a threat. Was he starting to lose it? Had he finally lost it? He was hearing voices now. His own voice. Was it… it was Omori. Talking to him? He never did before. He couldn’t remember if he had before. Did it have something to do with that black space place?

_“I’ll never tell”_

_  
_He was just mocking him now. When he finally climbed the seemingly endless steps in the ladder, he wasn’t really that ready for what he saw. Kel had to help him get up and he just stood next to him, gripping onto him for support as he looked at the pink haired girl.

She looked distressed, and the various objects around her room were floating, up and down and spinning around her as they pleased, in grand defiance of gravity’s rules. Her aura? Purple. Anger and sadness, and she was feeling them both pretty intensely, judging by how big the aura was. Why did the mix of pink hair and purple aura feel so strange? It felt... nostalgic.

_“Nostalgic, eh? Hard to say that about the things you’ve forgotten”_

Was he taunting him now? Omori knew the entire time, what sin he had committed, didn’t he?

_“That’s my job, Sunny. To hide the painful truth FOR YOU, but you keep looking…”_

It stung. This entire time he had been so confused why he hated himself, why he wanted to hurt himself so much, why he felt like he was an inhuman monster. And here was this voice in his head rubbing in the fact he wanted to hide the truth from even himself.

_“And so does your friend…”_

Now that was a definite threat. And Sunny could tell as he gazed at Hero once he was up the ladder. Hero was looking for the truth? Is that why he didn’t seem to trust him anymore? Had Hero found something?! Was it bad? Was it good? Sunny just wanted answers.

_“You can’t run from it any longer…”_

What was he running from?! He just wanted to know! What did Basil have to do with everything?! What was that Something?! What did it all mean?!  
  
“Hey Aubrey! How are you feeling?” Hero asked the most obvious question in the world in Sunny’s opinion. He could literally see that Aubrey was not okay. By any stretch of the imagination. But then Sunny saw her turn around, and he could see her eyes… were red.

Like the colour Basil’s were… in his dreams… before he woke up. Her cheeks were stained with her tears.

“W-W-W-What the heck are you guys doing here?! GET THE HELL OUT OF MY ROOM!” Aubrey had yelled though it was almost more like a scream, and Sunny noticed her hands. She was digging her nails into her hand, trying to clench them tighter. Sunny expected them to start bleeding if she wasn’t careful.

_“You can’t get out of this one, Sunny”_

Omori’s commentary wasn’t helping how nervous he felt. Was… Was this a set up? He could tell in that emotionless voice that Omori spoke with, his own voice… there was something about how he said that… it didn’t sound right.

“We’re sorry for intruding… it’ll only take a bit. We just wanted to make sure if you were okay” Hero, ever the mediator, despite how obviously dangerous this situation was. But Sunny could see him tensing up. He was on alert. And he wouldn’t blame him as Sunny was half expecting to have one of those objects thrown at him.

“I’m… FINE… I’m fine, that’s right. I’m fine. I’m completely fine. I’m totally fine. I’m… not fine at ALL! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?! TO REMIND ME OF HOW MUCH OF A FUCKUP I AM?” Now Aubrey was screaming, and her words felt all the more louder. Everything else seemed to be drowned out… why could he hear her so clearly and… why did Hero and Kel sound so much more muffled than before?

His breathing hitched as he felt the shockwave reverberate throughout the house, he could feel it through his core. The anger and sorrow she was feeling was pulsing through it. 

“What? No! I just… have been hearing some things and I wanted to hear it from you… about what happened yesterday…” Hero, you were there. Why are you asking a question you know the answer to!

“Oh, you mean how I nearly killed my two best friends? How I didn’t even think where Basil was and just wanted him to get away? How I forgot THEY CAN’T SWIM?! How I got reminded of how much of a monster I am for standing there and doing nothing whilst they drowned until you saved them?” Aubrey was crying. Her tears were floating around her. Aubrey… he didn’t like seeing her like this. She… She wasn’t a monster. The only person who was a monster was… was…  
  


_“You”_

“Aubrey… you’re not a monster...” Yes, Hero, she wasn’t a monster. Sunny wanted to tell her so much that he was a monster, to make her feel better. To show her that she was better than a monster. She was better than him.

“I am! Sunny comes out of his house for the first time in years after Mari’s death and the third thing I nearly do to him is let him drown after he jumped into the lake to save Basil. Who I just… wanted to get away from...! I nearly killed them! Without a second thought!” Aubrey was yelling, he could see her aura flaring in intensity as she shook. She was struggling to stop her tears as she was starting to lose control. The TV was spinning. If it hit them, it would probably be painful.

Nearly killed them… without a second thought…? Killed... why did… does this feel… familiar?

“Wanna know how I got this, Hero?” Aubrey was showing off… her injury. When he had cut her. He had hurt her. He had harmed her. Without a second thought he had cut her. Too wrapped up in his dreams to remember that stabbing someone in the real world wasn’t like how it was in the video game of his mind. 

Kel had taken the knife from him that day, just one of a few he still had in the house. He had done this to her. He was a monster. He had hurt the one he was close to… wait… why did that thinking sound… familiar…?

_“You know why… you’ve just forgotten…”_

Sunny’s eyes widened as he shuddered, as in his eyes the room started to ice over.

_“Do you want me to let you remember? I can’t hide it away any longer, Sunny...”_

W-What had he done in the past? What was so bad that he had needed to forget? Why did Omori sound so smug despite that flat tone of his?

“Sunny freaking cut me with a knife the first day he came out with Kel, trying to protect Basil from me. Maybe he should have stuck it a little deeper so I couldn’t hurt him and Basil anymore!” Aubrey screamed and Sunny shuddered.

He could have killed her. He could have killed someone he loved. But Basil wouldn’t have nearly died in the lake. This was his fault, if he hadn’t stabbed her at all, she might not have pushed Basil into the lake. He nearly had killed his friends.

_“They abandoned you, are they really your friends if they didn’t check on you for four years…?”_

Shut… Shut up. They are his friends. Despite everything. Everything… would work out. It had to work out. He needed it to work out. Hero was learning the truth. Maybe he could tell him? Would Hero trust him if he learned the truth?

“First time in years… and the first thing he sees me do is… hurt Basil…” Aubrey cried, and in that split moment he could see her aura starting to dim slowly. The purple was disappearing, the reds disappearing.

_“I wonder… Aubrey said she was going to dye her hair pink to match someone else dying it purple…? Who do you think was that someone, Sunny?”_

Sunny shuddered, his heart rate increased, and he could feel the loud thumping of his heart in his chest. He couldn’t deny he knew the answer. He knew the answer. Mari.

_“She never got to, did she?”_

Sunny felt sick, why was Omori doing this to him? Teasing him with hints and information about the things he had forgotten? What had he done that was so terrible that he had wanted to forget? 

“I’m a monster… not worth saving… so just leave me, Hero.” Aubrey sounded so broken, so hollow, so empty. Not worth… saving… a monster. Not worth saving him. Why had he started seeing himself as a monster anyway…? What could have…  
  


===

_The blonde boy looked distressed as he looked at him, sitting against his sister’s bed, hands in his face as he cried. “Sunny… Sunny we... we need to hide it…” the blonde boy insisted, his voice frantic and desperate as tears were in his eyes. His aura is fluctuating, between different colours but the predominant one is blue._

_“If… if they find out what happened… you’ll… you’ll be seen as a monster, I just know it… I don’t want to lose you!” the blonde boy had insisted, tears streaming down his face as he tried to insist they had to hide the crime._

_“They won’t understand! I don’t want them to hurt you” the blonde boy begs, shaking Sunny, trying to get him to respond as Sunny tried his best to find a crevice in his mind he could hide in._

_===_

What…? Was that… a memory? A crime… he had committed a crime. A Crime they needed to hide. A crime bad enough that he would have been called a monster. That was Basil, trying to tell him they had to hide it. Hide what? What had he done?! WHAT HAD HE DONE?!

It was getting too much, he was struggling to breathe. He had to calm down! He could do this, he could calm down… but his lungs were still fighting to breathe, and his heart sounded so much louder. He couldn’t calm down. No… why wasn’t… Why couldn’t he calm down? 

_Sunny forgot how to CALM DOWN._

No. No nO No nO. Why couldn’t he remember how?! It had seemed so simple before but now it was beyond his grasp.

_Sunny is AFRAID._

He barely noticed the drowned out voice of Kel trying to get his attention, shaking him before he saw Hero’s body go flying.

“Where were you when Mari died? Too busy living in your own head to worry about the rest of us! You always acted like the big brother except when it mattered the most! Sunny and Basil hid away in their houses like cowards, and Basil ruined all his photos of her because he probably couldn’t handle her being DEAD!” 

Aubrey’s voice felt all the more louder. Mari was dead. Mari was dead. And he had been living in his own head. Trying to not acknowledge his sister wasn’t in this world. She had taken her own life… right? But why would Basil ruin his photos of Mari? Did… he… really?

===

_A blonde boy sits beside him at the photos splayed out on the floor. He’s done this to try and get Sunny to calm down. But Sunny won’t calm down. Sunny can’t calm down. Not without Mari. These photos, they’re all their memories, the blonde boy tells him. And that they can still make new ones, the blonde boy insists._

_THESE ARE ALL OUR MEMORIES TOGETHER…_

_THEY’RE A LITTLE SAD NOW…_

  
  


_But Sunny sees the photos on the floor. The ones of Mari. No... Mari is gone. Sunny picks up the marker, not listening to his friend as he tries his best to block out the images of his sister. Mari is gone. His friend watches quietly as he etchs darkness onto the recorded memories of his sister. His friend is SAD, but understands._

_BUT WE SHOULD BE HAPPY THEY HAPPENED…_

_===_

He… he did it. He was the one who ruined the photos. He’s the one Aubrey should be mad at, not Basil. Basil did nothing wrong! He barely had time to process that fact when he saw Hero go flying. Crashing right into the wall, and he shuddered as he looked at Aubrey once again, blazing like a sun with that bright purple aura, it stood out amongst the growing darkness of the room.

===

_DON’T WORRY..._

_EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY…_

_===_

“Where were you, Hero!? When my dad ABANDONED ME and my mom stopped caring about me or anything at all!?” Aubrey’s aura shifted into a full on red. This wasn’t anger. This wasn’t rage. This was hate. Pure. Distilled. Hatred. 

===

_PROMISE ME THAT WE’LL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR EACH OTHER…_

_PROMISE ME..._

_===_

“Where were you when Mari needed help!? Why couldn’t you save her, Hero?! Why couldn’t you pay attention enough! I thought you loved her!” Aubrey’s accusations hurt so much to hear. He knew they were aimed at Hero. But it felt like it was directed at him. He loved Mari.

_“Did you?”_

Yes! Yes he did!

_“Are you sure?”_

He hesitated mentally at that question as he tried to breathe. Did he really love her? It was getting so cold in here. And so dark… Why could no one notice it? He heard the footsteps and realised Kel was standing in front of him and he shivered as the chill seemed to be intensifying.

Sunny could hear the thump of Hero’s footsteps as he stumbled over to him, they felt so much louder for some reason. His vision seemed to be getting hazy… was he going to die? Was he still breathing? His chest hurt so much. Why did the room feel so cold, and yet his lungs felt so hot.

“I…” Hero sounded full of doubt. “I wouldn’t have been able to change a damn thing, Aubrey!” Hero was right.  
  


  
 _“You can remember why, can’t you?”_ _  
  
_

_  
_No! He couldn’t! He didn’t know why Hero was right. It made sense that Hero wouldn’t have been able to change things, he wasn’t there when Mari died!  
  


  
_“But why do you know Hero wasn’t there that day?”_

  
  


It was a question he didn’t want to answer. He was such a coward. Such a monster.

“Are you just trying to convince yourself of that?! To try and avoid how much you’re to blame for Mari’s death? Because of you, I… no… WE all lost Mari. We lost our big sister because of you, Hero! And I want her back! I want her to tell me it's going to be okay!” Aubrey’s yell seemed to be so intense, as he could feel her voice crash against him. Aubrey was wrong. It wasn’t Hero’s fault, it was… It was...  
  


  
_“Because of you”_   
  


  
Omori’s voice was to the point. He knew. Sunny knew it wasn’t Hero’s fault. It was his fault they had lost Mari. He was the reason why Mari wasn’t with them. He didn’t know why he knew that. But he knew Omori wasn’t lying. It was his fault.

“Because of you… I became a monster…” Those words were like knives in his chest. Because of him. Because of him. Because of him. _Because_ of _HIM_. Mari was gone because of him.

===

_Suddenly the blonde boy stops. Sunny looks up at his eyes… but this time, they’re wide awake, staring at Something. Sunny turns his head to follow Basil’s eyes, but you wish you hadn’t. An eye meets yours from a hanging body. His heart sinks into his stomach as terror overtakes him. They shouldn’t have looked. They shouldn’t have looked. They shouldn’t have looked. WHY DID THEY LOOK?_

_===_

“Shouldn’t have looked” he finds himself muttering as quickly as he can, fast enough the words blur together and it’s all he can think about. He shouldn’t have looked. His chest heaves as he tries to breathe against the rising waters as grips his head, trying to deafen the intensifying sound of rushing water. He wants to scream so much. His head is killing him, like something is trying to break free of it. And amongst the repeated words in his mind, all he can think about is Mari’s body, hanging from the tree.

Judging him. Him and Basil. 

  
Mari was haunting him for his crime.

That had to be it. That’s what something was.

Basil had tried to protect him. He had doomed his friend from the start.

_“And you know it’s…”_

“All my fault” It's the truth, he tells himself aloud. It’s the truth, he knows himself. Mari’s death was his fault. That’s right, her death. He killed her. He didn’t know how he had killed her. But he killed her. He keeps telling himself that it’s his fault. It is his fault. There’s no hiding that fact anymore, it’s his fault Mari died.

He had done something horrible. It was his fault that Hero was sad. It was his fault that Aubrey was a monster like him now, a psychic powered killing machine. It was his fault that Basil was suffering for hiding his sin. He barely processes what the others are saying, they’re yelling and screaming various things as the shadowy hands squirm and writhe under his feet, and he can feel Something floating behind him. 

_“Sunny… I love you”_

He hears his sister’s voice. It hurts all the more. He loved her and he killed her somehow. And in her tone Sunny swears he can hear her judging him. Judging him for forgetting how he killed her. An insult to her memory, to forget how he claimed his sister’s life. Something’s shadowy hair droops down past his shoulders as he feels the fibres starting to wrap around his throat.

He barely hears what Aubrey is yelling, but Sunny doesn’t have time to process what happens next. Something bashes into Something, and keeps going. But he feels the pain all the same. He feels like he just got hit with Aubrey’s TV, the pain surges through his body and it hurts so much. It hurts so much. He screams, the pain is too much. He’s going to die. He wants to die. He should die…

This is all his fault. This is what he deserves. Useless people like him should die. Murderers like him should die...

All Sunny could feel was the pain, the loathing, the guilt, the hate and the sorrow inside… until he felt something gripping onto him. He looked up with confusion. It was Hero. Hero was holding his hands, trying to get his attention. He wanted him to let go. Hero’s hands felt like fire compared to the frigid hell he was in.

_“He’s trying to help…”_

It felt like Omori was offended by Hero’s actions. He couldn’t blame him. He didn’t deserve help.

“Sunny… SUNNY PLEASE” Hero had raised his voice, his tone desperate but compassionate. “Listen to me… you’ve gotta calm down...” Hero tone was insistent, and Sunny tried to let go. He couldn’t calm down. He didn’t know how. His memories of how he had done it before felt so hazy, like someone had locked them off from him.

“I can’t! I can’t! I’m trying!” it came out as a yell, louder than he had intended to, as he winced from the pain in his throat. He was trying to calm down, he couldn’t. All the voices felt so loud as the static seemed to build and the water got ever closer to his mouth. He couldn’t move his legs with all those hands keeping his feet down to the ground. He flailed, trying to get everything to let go of him but failing with Hero’s firm grip.

“Just… Just listen to the sound of my voice...” Hero’s voice felt like it echoed in his head. Hero started humming a familiar tune. He couldn’t place where it was from, his memories were too hazy but… it was sorta helping. The static seemed to be dimming in contrast to the humming which was piercing through it.

“O-Okay” Sunny wasn’t sure if this would work, there was no way this would work. But maybe what scared him was the idea of it working. That all of this was in his head and not reality.

“Now just... do like me… breathe… in… and out…” Hero’s voice was encouraging, he could hear the sounds of the man breathing. The water seemed to be lowering, so Sunny decided to take his chance.

“In… out…” Sunny said to himself, trying to convince himself as he could do it. His lungs hitched a little, like he was fighting some sort of resistance but he managed to break through it, air entering his lungs in greater quantities as he exhaled.

_Sunny remembered how to CALM DOWN._

The darkness of the room started to disappear and return to normal lighting, and he could feel Something’s threads around his neck start to disappear as the creature dissolved against his flesh. 

“That’s it… you can do it, Sunny… your big brother’s here” Hero sounded so convincing with how he said that. Big brother? He had a big sibling once. Was Hero his big sibling now? They weren’t related… but Hero said that he was his big brother. He felt Hero press his forehead against his, and Sunny instinctively pressed back, gripping onto Hero a little tighter. He was trying to focus all his thoughts on Hero as he breathed, it was getting easier. And easier.  
  
But then Sunny saw Hero close his eyes.

_“Tell Hero when he’s reading these memories…”_

Hero opened his eyes and his eyes looked a little duller, and he gazed at Sunny with some kind of inquisitive look, like he was seeing something that Sunny couldn’t.

_“That I said ‘Hi’”_

Was Hero reading his memories?! Wait, what was this feeling? He felt some kind of link, some kind of connection with Hero and then he felt his head pounding as he could feel Omori gripping at the link… and tugging.

Everything went black… as the two boys collapsed against the floor.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took me a while to work out because it was utter pain to write Sunny with the self-hate he's implied to have in the game. I got a bit caught up in in a few places. 
> 
> Also apparently Psychometry is listed on TV Tropes now??? as a Recommended Fic???  
> You're making a mistake I swear.
> 
> That's right, this entire chapter is both Sunny's point of view, and Hero reading Sunny at the same time. 
> 
> ...
> 
> I'm such a hack.


	5. Repression and Regret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome... to Black Space.
> 
> Hero knew he didn't belong here, having fallen for Omori's trap. In this place he learns the situation is more dire than he thought, and maybe... he can learn to move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Konekonorenkinjutsushi from the Omoricord (Might remember her as the person who did the fanart for Chapter 4) for helping me beta this chapter, actually caught a few typos and grammar errors I didn't notice on my first past.

_“Tell Hero when he’s reading these memories...”_

_“That I said ‘Hi’”_

When the vision ended, Hero realised he was not in his own body. Nor was he in Aubrey’s house. Looking at his surroundings, all he could see was an abyssal black, but he could still see himself very clearly, so it wasn’t like this place was shrouded in darkness.

The unnerving thing was the amount of doors, and eyes wandering around, it took him a bit to realise they were figures, their form nothing but shadow barring their eyes.

WELCOME TO BLACK SPACE.

YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE, AWAKENED ONE.

The words came unbidden to his mind, he wasn’t sure if it was the shadowfolk around him or some voice directly from this place. He already knew he wasn’t welcome here but he wasn’t sure where HERE was. Black Space? What did that mean?

Searching his surroundings, in the distance he saw a… blanket? And a picnic basket. And a sketchbook… a box of tissues. What made things worse was the ‘sound’ he was hearing of this place, the ambience. It sounded kind of like a distorted chime played in order, he could almost faintly hear the ticking of a clock?

He found it difficult to move, not because of the unsteadiness of the surface below him, but the gravity of this place. It was like it was actively impeding his movement by its very essence. What was this place?

THIS PLACE HOLDS TRUTHS THAT THE DREAMER WISHES TO FORGET.

IN THIS ABYSSAL PLACE

THERE IS ONLY REPRESSION AND REGRET.

  
  
THE WATCHER KNOWS YOU ARE HERE.

  
  
HE WAITS FOR YOU.

“This place holds truths… that the dreamer wishes to forget…” Hero muttered to himself, trying to think of who this dreamer was. His head hurt from viewing Sunny’s memories, well… not exactly his head. He looked at himself carefully, gauging his number of fingers as he tried to recall what happened.

He had read Sunny, experienced his memories and thoughts of the last few days. He shouldn’t have done it, the temptation was too great. But now… he realised it had been a trap. At least he had a name for that doppelganger, the name of Sunny’s Guardian. Omori.

He grimaced, remembering a key bit of info from the night he had stayed over at Sunny’s house. Omori. That was the name etched into the piano in golden font. It seemed fitting given that he was likely to form due to Mari’s death. 

Awakened One, huh? So if Sunny was the Dreamer, this meant that he was inside some part of Sunny’s mind and memories. Hero was an Awakened One… because he hadn’t been asleep when he came here, he imagined. And Omori, the doppelganger, must be the Watcher. It made some sort of sense.

Hero walked onto the picnic blanket, noticing it seemed immobile despite him scuffing his feet against it. At least it was more solid ground, the movement impediment wasn’t strong here, like it was a safe island in the storm of issues around him.

“I know they say ‘dark places’ when it comes to uncomfortable thoughts but this feels… worse” Hero said, trying to crack a joke for his own sake. This place unnerved him. He crouched down and picked up the sketchbook.

  
  
Black, like everything else here, with white outlines. He took a deep breath and opened it, the pages had looked white from the outside but with it open. They were red. As crimson as blood and it unnerved Hero to notice he could see the creases in the old sketch paper, like blood had saturated the fibres of it so much. The imagery was uncomfortable, and he had to admit it sort of gelled with the negative and destructive thoughts he remembered from reading Sunny.

He wondered if his body was still breathing, hopefully it was running on auto-pilot for him to return to it. The idea of being trapped in Sunny’s traumatised mind wasn’t a welcome or encouraging one. But the imagery in the book reminded him of the thing he had seen formed when Sunny’s empathic powers had run out of control.

  
  
Instead of feeling the feelings of others, Sunny had forced his own feelings on them, manifesting this aspect of his trauma for the others to have to see. It wasn’t a true physical manifestation, more as an induced hallucination empowered by the raw emotions Sunny was feeling.

All that self hate. The repeated mentions of ‘monster’. The fear that Hero didn’t trust Sunny. That Sunny was a murderer. That Sunny should die. Hero sat down on the picnic blanket, paging through the images in the sketchbook to distract himself. He didn’t know how to get out of here. Was he trapped here?

  
  
Alone with the shadows and his own thoughts, surrounded by doors through which even a non-empath like Hero could sense the dark emotions hidden behind them. Or maybe it was because he was in Sunny’s mind that he could feel them so strongly. He checked his pocket, he still had the violin shard. That’s right, he still remembered having it on his person so it joined him, even in mental form.

He inhaled, trying to breathe and calm himself down, despite the fact he didn’t need to breathe here, being yanked out of one’s body was still a disorienting experience. Nevermind not seeing it coming. 

Aubrey’s breakdown was the set up for a trap. To get at him specifically. And the others were just bystanders to it all, but he doubted that Omori hadn’t managed to pull the hallucination for anything except hurting them.

“I suppose he’s right about that… in a way” Hero said, musing on the commentary that Omori had given Sunny, he started to doubt that Omori was a normal Guardian by any stretch of the imagination. 

‘They abandoned you, are they really your friends if they didn’t check on you for four years’. Hero had shut down, and he had lashed out at his brother for it. He really didn’t have the right to call himself Sunny’s friend after abandoning the boy to stew in his own negative thoughts and feelings.

But Aubrey… Aubrey’s words still stung. The worst part is he didn’t doubt Aubrey believed them on some level. Omori just poked and prodded at the right spots to exacerbate things. Even if he couldn’t have saved Mari, if Sunny apparently ‘murdered’ her, it was still his fault for closing himself off to the others and abandoning Aubrey to her homelife and Basil to being… alone. 

It hurt all the more, knowing that Aubrey was more right than she probably realised, he did blame himself for Mari’s suicide for so many years. Blaming himself for not noticing the signs. Even finding aspects of the truth to the contrary, it still was a deep emotional wound that Hero had long doubted would ever even begin to heal.

Basil… Hero didn’t know how to feel about the anxious flower child. The memory of Basil insisting to a distraught Sunny that they needed to hide ‘it’, was it Mari’s death? A desperate Basil, trying to get through to a traumatised Sunny, likely suffering a complete breakdown from his sister’s death. Neither of them were rational in those memories.

  
  
“You’ll be seen as a monster... I don’t want to lose you... They won’t understand… I don’t want them to hurt you...” Hero muttered, thinking about Basil’s frantic words. So it wasn’t a suicide. But did that mean… the hanging itself was the cover-up? He felt cold, and hurt. Mari was dead, but it felt like he was reliving those times all over again after her death. 

But he remembered how Mari’s ghost… had insisted that he save the two. This ran deeper than he thought, but could two boys have really hidden it as a suicide? Potentially, though he wondered how Sunny had managed to get Mari up to her bed by the recent memories of Sunny insisting his sister needed sleep. Which means Basil… had seen everything that had happened. 

Basil had helped Sunny carry up the stairs, which means Basil had carried her downstairs with Sunny and likely helped… hang her. And in Sunny’s distressed state… oh no. Omori was definitely not normal and he wondered if that’s when Omori had begun to form. When Mari had died at the base of those steps.

  
“I can’t hide it away any longer, Sunny” Hero muttered to himself, trying to sound it out and seeing if it had an effect on the place. That was part of the reason why he was talking to himself, to try and recall the feelings and thoughts he had read via his ability. So Omori had helped hide away the memories of that day, potentially? To protect a fragile young mind damaged by what they could have done.

“There is only Repression and Regret…” Hero ‘thought’ aloud, looking at the vast expanse of pitch black, he realised the figures walking aimlessly were staring at him now. Sitting here on the picnic baskets let him focus his thoughts and he realised they all had the shape of Basil.

They were walking towards him, not aggressively, but more out of curiosity it seemed. 

“Sunny doesn’t know about this place, does he?” Hero asked of the shades around him, who were keeping a safe distance from him, curious if they had thoughts and wills of their own. He hoped so, he wished for more insight about this place.

“He was here earlier” one of the shades whispered, their voices a cacophony against the ambient discordant crimes. So Sunny had been down here, which meant ‘here’ might have been connected to some place else, and therefore potentially a way to escape. Or maybe not, he couldn’t see anything except the doors.

“Wearing that cursed form, who ascended upon his throne of guilt” another of them spoke, and through the static that their voices sounded akin to, he could hear aspects of Basil’s younger voice. Cursed form? Did that mean that in Sunny’s dreams, Sunny wore Omori literally like a form of armor? A protection, even in his dreams? Did Sunny not even think his dreams were safe?

“But past the door of red, the cursed one sits upon his throne, waiting for you, AWAKENED ONE” a shade declared, and Basil’s voice more clear in their voice, as they swept their difficult to see arm and pointing at a black door that emitted a red glow from underneath its frame.

“The DREAMER is desperate. The WATCHER can no longer hide the TRUTH. He fears for the DREAMER should he learn it. Thus he sees you, AWAKENED ONE, as a threat to his DREAMER” the first shade spoke, evidently clarifying why Omori was trying to target him specifically and so directly compared to the others.

“He fears for him? What do you mean…?” Hero asked, given that Omori’s behaviour seemed a bit contradictory given how he was acting in Sunny’s head. Sounded like standard overprotective Guardian behaviour but there was something ‘off’ about it, and Hero couldn’t quite why just yet. Why was Sunny so desperate? Was it because he was moving soon?

“The WATCHER both loves and hates the DREAMER. He protects him by hiding the TRUTH for him, but he also embodies the DREAMER’s wishes. He does not like what the DREAMER wishes for” the second shade stated, ah. So there was conflict between the two, in the sense that Sunny desired something that Omori did not want to let Sunny have. But what was it?

“Such is his nature. The WATCHER was born from the INCIDENT, a cursed shell to embody the nothingness that the DREAMER wished to feel. Embodying the DREAMER’S desire for death and punishment is all the WATCHER has left now that the TRUTH is within reach” the third shade said sorrowfully, and Hero flinched at what they said.

“Sunny wishes for… death?” Hero was horrified, remembering the thoughts the boy had of self-harm in the vision of the knife. He knew Sunny looked… depressed, hell he assumed the boy was in a state of depression. Had… Sunny attacked Aubrey with the knife because he wanted to be punished for it? 

The idea of the young boy wishing for death was a distressing one, but given what Sunny believed himself to have done, he could see why the boy would start idolising the idea of death. Either as punishment for his crime… or to be reunited with his dead sister.

“The DREAMER’S hatred of themselves is embodied in the WATCHER most strongly, becoming akin to their mirrored reflection. The WATCHER has become warped by the DREAMER’S repeated avoidance of the TRUTH and what once was a protector, is now but an malignant shadow of the DREAMER’S waking thoughts” a fourth shade intoned, their voice seemed to be in pain, like something was exerting a kind of grip on them, but the shades were talking regardless, defying this unknown force as if trying to spite them.

“If Omori is the Watcher, then what are you?” Hero inquired, not sure about these fragments of shadow, why did they look so much like Basil? And the way they looked at him, like they saw through him.

“We are… the last vestiges of what once was. Broken petals of the FLOWER CHILD, and that which once protected them… The FLOWER CHILD dreams like the DREAMER but their shared GUILT links them together, and thus the WATCHER sundered us, for we are pieces that crack at the DREAMER’S crumbling facade of ignorance” a fifth shade spoke, they sounded like they were gasping for air, and Hero noticed that some of them looked damaged now.

“So Basil’s worsening anxiety…?” Hero was almost afraid to ask the pertinent question, if they were splintered pieces of Basil’s psyche, the gradually worsening deterioration of the boy’s mental state was a foregone conclusion, especially if the boy was aware of his sense of self being in pieces and being aware of the other pieces’ location.

“The FLOWER CHILD’S and OUR sundering by the WATCHER has trapped us fragments of them in this place. Exposure to the SIN and the GUILT of it has eroded and chipped away at the FLOWER CHILD’S traumatized mind through his dreams” another shade spoke, their voice becoming more glitchy and distorted, likely whatever was in control of this place was trying to prevent the shades from interfering in its plan for Hero.

“In this horrid place, the DREAMER has watched the FLOWER CHILD’S simulated death many times before, and the FLOWER CHILD has felt it as their own throughout the countless cycles. The FLOWER CHILD does not have much time left before they try to escape their guilt and pain by paying a dark penance” the last remaining shade spoke, before the shades started to disappear one by one as red hands dragged them under the darkness of the surface of this place. Hero was helpless and unable to help even as he tried to help and tug them back up as his hand phased through them.

“Dark… penance…” Hero began, having a gut feeling he knew what that meant. If Sunny was the ‘murderer’, and Basil helped cover it up, Basil intended on taking his secret to the grave if it meant protecting Sunny. Which meant Basil was fully aware of what happened, whilst Sunny repressed it all.

Which probably made interacting with the others worse, trying to keep it together whilst he kept the secret from Aubrey and Kel, and even Hero and Sunny. Simulated death? Did this mean that Omori had some form of resentment towards Basil? Did Omori act out harm against Basil to punish him for his part in the sin the two shared?

So Omori was waiting for him, and he didn’t have much time left before Basil potentially killed himself. Hero knew he needed to check on him tonight, this was Sunny’s last night and he doubted the distance between the two would make Basil’s mind any more stable, those pieces would still be in Sunny, living through whatever torments Basil put them through.

Hero knew he still had so many questions, wondering why Basil thought about hanging Mari to hide her death as a suicide. Why hanging specifically? When did Basil even learn how to tie a noose, then again it wasn’t like it was difficult, but doing it with Sunny’s own jump rope? That would have just led to even more questions in retrospect. But to two 12 year olds, he doubted they were thinking that far ahead.

Basil… the boy’s parents were away all the time, that’s what Basil had said specifically. But from the wording of what Basil said to Sunny, and Basil’s emotional state whenever they used to joke about having psychic powers as a kid, he knew Basil was the source of Sunny’s attitude of being a monster.

A bitter and unfortunate irony that was, given they didn’t know. Sunny and Basil had been hiding it this entire time. Sunny likely wasn’t comfortable with people knowing, especially given how he viewed the world. He wondered how Basil viewed the world, and given the boy’s anxieties he doubted it was any better than Sunny’s. 

Basil had reacted negatively because he clearly hated his abilities, but he doubted Basil had ever developed them because of trauma. Basil was an empath, or at least he assumed so since Basil could sense Mari’s emotions. Mari had mentioned his anxiety got worse when she got near him, and that he was hurting himself.

Great. Two suicidal 16 year olds scarred by the death of Mari to which they were both audience to, and had spent 4 years locked away as a result of such an event. And Basil likely wasn’t any better off given Aubrey’s bullying of him. If anything he was worse off, Hero just hoped that he could be saved.

Aubrey… he hoped that Kel was okay out there in the real world. He wasn’t sure if Sunny’s breakdown resulted in her snapping out of her breakdown or not, he’d have to talk to her when he got out of here. He had so much to ask her about. But now he got the feeling she likely didn’t know any more about Mari’s death than Kel would. But her problems were still very real and in need of solving.

He couldn’t just sweep the fact that she was living in a terrible situation under the rug. He technically still had a gym membership, maybe she could just use his so she could at least get a locker to store things. Hero barely used the gym, but he got it because of his mother’s encouragement too in order to stay in shape and because of the practicality of having one just in case. Exercise was good for the mind, she said.

A locker to store her things, a freely accessible shower so she could clean up rather than the rancid bathroom she was forced to use. As far as she knew the Gym was a 24-hour one too, so she’d be able to come and go as she pleased. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start, a way to help get her out of that hell.

Hero double checked the sketchbook again, noticing certain things looked less like drawings and more like… photos. Some of them were scribbled out, the dark etching of what seemed to be a pencil or pen seemed frantic and desperate. Sunny had been desperately trying to forget about Mari’s death and his involvement. The one that stuck out was the one that looked like Basil and Sunny, standing in front of a pile of flowers. Likely when Basil had gotten them all out to try and snap Sunny back into reality or at least calm him down. It hadn’t worked at the time, and now Hero knew that Sunny’s decision had consequences for Basil.

Hero grimaced at the thought, Basil was too afraid to speak up about what really happened to the photos and as such Aubrey hated him for it. Basil trying to protect Sunny like this only made things worse. Maybe Basil thought it’d be worse if he told the truth. Maybe Basil assumed no one would believe it was Sunny. 

Well, there was no other real option barring the ominous door with red light coming out from under it, he looked at the other doors, deciding that since he had no knowledge of where they led they were unsafe to try and use given he didn’t want to get lost in this nightmarish realm. He had to get back to the waking world, the real world and check on Aubrey and Kel… and Basil.

He wondered if Sunny was still asleep, or awake, maybe desperately trying to wake him up.

Hero started to get up, gripping onto the sketchbook and gazing over at the red door, noticing the ‘surface’ of this place was starting to churn. Maybe Omori was getting annoyed with his tardiness. The thought encouraged Hero, feeling a little petty as he walked to the edge of the blanket, gazing over to the red-lit door and starting to walk, noticing red hands forming out of the ground and creating a bridge for him to cross the churning sea of trauma.

Hero rested his hand against the door handle, and tried to peer through the lock but saw nothingness. He tried to mentally psych himself up before turning the door handle and opening it. Light erupted from the doorway and Hero crossed through the threshold, only to find himself in another place.

This was a snowy region? Strange, this area felt familiar, he got the vague feeling of Faraway Town during the winter, and looked upwards. He could see the church at the top of the mountainous path, the church from Faraway Town tolled its bell in the distance. 

It reminded him of that day. The funeral service for Mari, before she was buried in the town’s graveyard. 

This place felt stuck in time, Sunny still hadn’t moved on from Mari’s death, in fact he couldn’t move on.

Part of him wondered why he didn’t feel anger towards Sunny, knowing the hints that Sunny could have killed Mari were true in some regard. Maybe he was just tired of being angry over Mari’s death, over being unable to save her or see the signs.

Maybe it was knowing that anger was pointless. What was done, was done, and Sunny and Basil were suffering for it.

If there was one punishment he might have wanted to give Sunny, it was to force him to live. To make him live in a world without his sister, to be forced to live his life with the knowledge of what he had done. And get him some help. 

“If his plan was to make me turn against Sunny, I think it’s falling apart already…” Hero joked to himself as he began the trek through the snow. The snow was soft, and his feet didn’t sink too far into it, given the place didn’t feel as oppressive as the nightmarish dark realm before. In fact it felt vaguely holy.

He wondered if he’d be able to see Mari’s grave at the top of the path, inside the cathedral maybe.

He hoped he’d be able to see Mari’s grave.

He still wished that Mari was here, as he gripped the violin shard strongly in his hand, as he ascended the stairs, paying no attention to the plate of steak and the basket that reminded him so strongly of the old days.

The days where they’d spend time together.

He missed her.

He knew she was gone.

He didn’t want her to be gone.

It still hurt knowing she was gone.

It hurt knowing that he couldn’t have prevented her death.

It hurt knowing Sunny had been the reason why.

...But…

It hurt knowing Sunny had hurt himself because of this.

It hurt knowing Basil had hurt himself because of this.

It just… hurt.

“You’re not going to break me” Hero insisted to himself, as he ascended the stairs and pushed against the large doors of the church to open them.

  
It took a bit of effort, in this place where will was strength, the church doors seemed to be actively resisting him, but they eventually gave in and allowed him passage.

Hero stumbled into the church, a bit surprised when the doors had finally given in suddenly. He had almost dropped the violin shard, and even the sketchbook when he had lost his balance but luckily he had recovered enough before he had. 

The church was deserted of people, but it was lit by the moonlight to provide illumination and allow Hero to see inside. Hero hadn’t even noticed any moon, but it had been dark outside when he had made the trek up the mountain. At the end of the line of pews, he saw it upon the dias and church alter. A crystal casket.

Mari.

Mari was slumbering inside, and Hero nearly stopped breathing.

No, he could do this.

He had to do this.

Omori wasn’t going to break him!

He made his way down the aisle, ascending the wooden steps that creaked under his footsteps, as he almost felt like he was hearing his heartbeat echo in his ears. 

There she was, at peace.

He stepped forward, running his fingers against the crystal glass wishing he could hold her once again.

He wished he could see her smile once more.

Hero took a deep breath, despite the non-existence of air in this dreamy place and set down the violin shard on the crystal coffin. He assumed it was important that he still had the shard and waited for an effect to happen.

Nothing... 

Wait...

The church seemed to shudder a little, causing Hero to nearly lose his balance as the vibrations rocked the building in which he stood.

The shuddering stopped, and the Mari in the casket opened her eyes.

“About time” Hero heard Mari say, and he was a bit surprised, having not expected this result.

“What… this is a trick, it has to be” Hero insisted, maybe this was Omori trying to psych him out or something.

Mari seemed to laugh as she pushed her hands through the glass and started to climb out of it, like the crystal glass was simply liquid to her, watching as the crystal melted away as she travelled through it.

“Whilst that’s probably something that Omori might do, from what I’ve seen of my brother’s behaviour as of later, I’m pretty sure I’m the real deal” Mari said, looking a little smug and a tad proud of herself for some reason.

“Now I’m just confused” Hero said flatly, this was a tad ludicrous to him.

“It’s the Violin Shard I left around for you to find” Mari clarified, holding it up and passing it over to Hero.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Hero was confused by that statement as he held the violin shard in his hand before pocketing it for safekeeping.

“After I calmed you down that night, I managed to tether myself to the shard, so that I could be close enough to follow you into your dreams in case Omori tried any more funny business” Mari confessed, which left Hero confused.

“So are you haunting me right now?” Hero asked, and Mari looked a tad offended.

“I’m technically not a ghost, so no” Mari said, a grin on her face as she tapped Hero on the nose.

“You’re dead, Mari, you technically are” Hero said bluntly, responding with sarcasm as he embraced her.

Oh how he had missed her.

“Hero… you’ve figured out Sunny was a natural psychic, right?” Mari asked, trying to gauge Hero’s knowledge of things.

“Yeah, so? It explains a lot about him, right?” Hero asked, wondering what she was trying to imply.

“It does. But… he’s not the only natural psychic in the family” Mari clarified, evidently trying to figure out how to explain what she wanted to say.

“What does that have to do with you not being a ghost, then?” Hero asked, having assumed logically that she was a ghost who had stayed on Earth due to regrets.

“Everything, actually” Mari said, frowning.

“I… before I… passed away. I managed to cast my mind and soul out of my body… seeing myself dead on the floor was a pretty shocking experience, but I’m sorta… less of a ghost and more a mind without a body. On some level… I’m still alive” Mari said, it was difficult to explain for her it seemed.

“So wait, you’re telling me… that for four years, you’ve been living as nothing but an Astral Projection?” Hero asked in shock, before a bit of anger rose as he realised the implications.

“You could have told us this entire time!” Hero exclaimed, so many problems could have been resolved if she had bothered to say anything.

“Then tell me something, Hero? How would you have reacted had I appeared before you, telling you that I can’t return to my body because it was DEAD, and that I have to constantly resist passing on because of what my brother did by ACCIDENT?” Mari exclaimed angrily, and Hero let go of her in order to avoid the swing of her arm from her frustration.

“I… probably would have hurt Sunny… now that I think about it” Hero confessed, realising just how emotionally driven he would have been to hurt something after her death. Especially when his powers started manifesting.

“Exactly. So the last four years, I’ve had to watch as Sunny and Basil destroy and hurt themselves, whilst I am unable to give them closure and convince them that I forgive them for what happened because their trauma runs so deep my presence triggers them” Mari said, and it was clear the last four years had taken its toll on her.

“And… I… didn’t know if you could see me” Mari admitted, her voice losing a lot of its angry edge, filled with sorrow.

“I didn’t know if anyone could see me. Mom never saw me when I tried to talk to her, but my mere presence set Sunny off. I bound myself to the piano I used to play, but Sunny would start avoiding that room. So I bound myself to the violin shards next to try and hold on longer, and I think your memories of me are helping me stay here” Mari confessed, rubbing her arms as she was clearly trying to get used to having a physical body in any form.

“So if you can enter this place…” Hero began, wondering about something.

“The only time I could get close to Sunny was when he was asleep. I’d slip into his dreams since I’m just a mind, and hide as the Dream of Me that he created from his memories of the old days” Mari admitted, it was a roundabout method but it was clear she didn’t have many options.

“Have you ever been to this part of Sunny’s mind then?” Hero asked, only for her to nod.

“A few times, actually. It looks much different now but I never could get into this place normally, only when I was cast in here when Omori inevitably reset the dreamworld to try and hide the truth again from Sunny. Basil’s dream avatar and the fragments of his mind keep uncovering the way in for Sunny to find and from there it would spread back in like a virus but if Basil...” Mari explained, leaving the implication for Hero to finish.

“If Basil attempts to ‘atone’, then Omori might be able to hide it permanently again” Hero began, before Mari shook his head.

“No. If Basil attempts to atone, Sunny will try to join him. Omori’s trying to help Sunny fulfill his suicidal desires, to ‘save’ him from the pain and suffering he feels NOW that Sunny is more aware of the truth than he’s ever been before…” Mari said bluntly, pointing out the more serious prospect.

“He’s waiting for me, but I don’t know if he’s waiting for you to show up” Hero pointed out, noticing the pillar of light at the back wall.

“Omori is... flawed, but he’s important. We can’t destroy him, just… talk to him. Convince him to let Sunny heal” Mari admitted, rubbing her neck as she tapped her foot against the floor.

“I’ve had… four years to reflect on things. Part of this is my fault. Actually a lot of it is my fault. I pushed Sunny too hard, I was never satisfied with what he could do. I just expected more” Mari confessed, and Hero was taken aback.

“I know you loved me, Henry. But… I’m not a good person” Mari said, a weak smile on her face as she was trying to hold back tears.

“Mari, that’s… not true at all… you are a good person” Hero insisted, as she gripped onto him.

“You’re just saying that because you love me” Mari said bluntly, shaking her head.

“I’m… not, Mari” Hero said, sounding a little hurt.

“Hero, it’s okay… I’m dead. I know they say ‘Don’t speak ill of the dead’, but I messed up pretty badly” Mari said, trying to laugh at herself to make the pain feel less real.

“I shouldn’t have gotten so frustrated with Sunny. He was trying, trying so hard. But… I think being the favourite of the two didn’t help. When the recital was getting closer, I started to scoff and laugh at Sunny’s screw ups” Mari spoke next, and Hero winced at that. That would have been rather crushing to Sunny’s morale.

“We weren’t in sync at all, we’d have been a laughing stock, I think… I think that’s what made me so harsh, the idea of not being perfect in mom and dad’s eyes. Sunny just wanted to do it to spend time with me and… I… ruined that for him” Mari said, sighing a little as she leaned against Hero who awkwardly hugged her to stop her falling over.

“I don’t blame him for pushing me that day, even if he didn’t realise where I was, I kinda deserved it for all the hell I put him through” Mari admitted, and Hero frowned.

“What about what Basil did, made Sunny do?” Hero asked, concerned about how willing she was to take all the blame for Sunny’s trauma.

“Basil… I messed up, really badly. And with what Basil’s brother did to him… I just made those scars worse…” Mari confessed, and that surprised Hero.

Basil had a brother?

He remembered Aubrey mentioning them a while back, when they first met Basil.

_‘His big bro’s name is Rowan but he’s no longer around anymore according to what Basil told me… he kinda avoided me whenever I visited. Always kinda cranky whenever I saw him’_

Even 4 years later, Hero could still hear Aubrey’s young voice as clear as day. He really missed the old days, didn’t he?

“Do you know what happened to him, you know, Basil’s brother?” Hero asked, curious what she meant by the scars Basil carried.

Mari shook her head.

  
  
“No, I don’t. Whatever happened hurt Basil a lot… enough that he thought about hiding my death as a suicide. My dead body probably reminded him of it” Mari said, her morose tone as she spoke of the unknown state of Basil’s sibling.

Hero breathed in and sighed, looking at the pillar of light as he gripped her hand.

  
  
“We should probably get this over then, we’re losing time to save them both after all…”

“Hero?”

  
  
“Yeah?”

  
  
“Promise me… once this is all finished. You’ll learn to move on from me, okay?”

“I… I don’t know if I can…”

  
  
“Promise you’ll try?”

  
  
“I promise”

  
  
And thus… the two walked into the pillar of light.

To face Omori.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might be wondering who Rowan is.
> 
> Fun Fact: During development, at one point, Basil was called Rowan. And one of the first artworks of Rowan/Basil as seen here: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/omori/images/5/5d/OMOCAT_SKETCH_FLOWEROMORI.png/revision/latest?cb=20180510222452  
> Bit of an angry boy, right?
> 
> I figured I'd use it as the basis of an older brother character for Basil.
> 
> It's gonna be fun writing when he shows up again eventually...


	6. The Watcher's Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Mari at his side, Hero goes to face Omori to convince him to let Sunny seek the truth...
> 
> But there was more to Omori than met the eye, and Hero's own assumptions are challenged as Omori reveals he's not so emotionless after all...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Koneko again for helping me proof read this and give some suggestions about grammer.

When the light cleared, Hero saw… Hero wasn’t entirely sure what he actually saw. He was in a different place, Mari by his side still, but this place was surreal even by the standards of ‘Black Space’ being his point of reference. 

All that was here... was a blood red path leading forward, and in the distance Hero could make out stairs, with broken gaps bridged by more of those pale white hands with red outlines that dripped blood. And at the top of it, was a throne, a throne shaped like two hands cupping something. 

This place was surreal, it floating in what looked to be a strange void where the only other object was the gigantic hands in the surrounding air, and Hero swore those hands were dripping with blood.

“This is it…” Hero muttered to himself, noticing someone sitting at that throne.

Omori.

Except he looked… different.

Whilst he was monochrome and emotionless in expression, he looked like he had been splattered with blood from the red splotches that were the only colour on his being.

Mari nodded as the two made their way down the path, Omori coming further and further into view.

Omori was staring at Hero, and he could feel the anger behind those blank eyes, before he saw their eyes shift over and evidently he had noticed Mari.

In that split second, Hero swore he could see the shock on Omori’s face. 

“I only wanted you, what is she doing here…?” Omori didn’t sound like he had accounted like this, and seeing Omori actually talking was new. It was weird not to hear the voice echoing in the distance whilst Omori’s face had been a passive and blank stare.

Omori was more emotive than expected, showing signs of actual body language and potentially human-like expression.

Omori was frowning at Hero, as if expecting an explanation.

“Sorry for the late heads up, the guest of honor sort of invited herself” Hero said sarcastically, wanting to feel a little smug for managing to acquire a wrench to throw into Omori’s pan.

“Invited herself…?” Omori didn’t seem to comprehend what Hero meant as he stared at Mari, as they ascended the steps, inching closer and closer.

“Surely you must have realised it, right? That Sunny’s dream of me was too lifelike for a figment of memory?” Mari asked, and Hero could feel the pride in her interference almost radiating off of her.

“It’s over, Omori, I don’t intend to stop looking for the whole truth, and you can’t hide things from Sunny anymore” Hero insisted, clenching his fist as he leaped over to the other set of stairs, not trusting the red hands to not just drop him into the abyss of hands below.

“I don’t have to kill you, just break you enough that Sunny goes back to what he was doing before he went outside that day” Omori said, brandishing his knife as he got up off of the throne. 

“Like what you did to Basil, right?” Hero retorted, glaring at the doppelganger of Sunny. It was then he realised how much younger Omori seemed compared to Sunny. Whilst Sunny had aged a little bit, a bit stunted from his mistreatment of himself, Omori seemed to have been unchanging.

Maybe he had never changed from that day when he was created. 

“He was an intruder” Omori insisted, gripping the knife tightly, as if trying to justify his actions. Hero could tell that Omori’s emotionless facade was starting to fail. He could no longer be the emotionless shell that Sunny had wanted him to be. 

“You hurt him! You hurt Sunny’s best friend!” Hero accused, deciding to see if he could chip at Omori’s facade.

“He kept pushing Sunny to find the Truth!” Omori insisted, and Hero could hear the emotion in his voice.

Omori is ANGRY.

“And so he should die because of it?” Mari asked, and Omori twitched, glaring at Mari with hate in his eyes. The way that she said it so matter-of-factly chilled Hero a little, like she wasn’t actually afraid of Omori.

“It’s what he deserved for what he did! What he kept doing! And is still doing it to Sunny!” Omori declared, but Hero could tell that Mari’s words had struck a chord in Omori.

“So if you break me like you think you can… do you really think that will make Sunny shut down all over again?” Hero asked, trying to determine what exactly Omori had planned here. He was starting to doubt that Omori had this all figured out.

“I imagine he would, seeing his big brother potentially go into a coma, or even have a nervous breakdown, or maybe… take his own life right in front of friends like Sunny so desperately wants to do himself?” Omori taunted, and Hero tried to laugh at what Omori had said, an attempt at bravado. Mari was here, right beside him. There was no way that was going to happen, right?

Omori was more agitated, his hands twitching as he held the knife in his hands. “It’d be fitting, right? Since he’s so good at killing his older siblings, right?” Omori continued, taking a step forward.

Omori raised the knife above their head, glaring at Hero with rage in his eyes, flipping the knife around in their grip so as to stab with it instead of slicing.

“Because he’d rather hide away from the fact he did it, than admit that he’s horrible and irredeemable FILTH?!” Omori demanded, his body shaking with every word he said.

Omori is ENRAGED.

“He made a mistake, Omori” Hero said bluntly, it was becoming increasingly clear that Omori was about as stable as Sunny was. Probably not very, and Hero knew he had struck a nerve with what he had said.

“You don’t get to say it was a mistake, Hero! You loved her, and he killed her! He took her from you, from us!” Omori yelled, more agitated than before as he swung at Hero, though Hero had been waiting for that blade, and managed to avoid it by stepping to the side.

“Yes, I do! I damn well do! I loved her, and I cared about her. But she’s gone and nothing I can do will change the fact that she’s gone! And it doesn’t change the fact that Sunny is hurting himself over what he did, and that it’s time for him to stop!” Hero roared, grabbing Omori’s wrist, trying to remove the knife from his grip as he tussled. He didn’t appreciate Omori reminding him that he had lost the love of his life.

“I want my brother to stop hurting himself! And I want him to live life, not just rot away as he waits to die for what was an accident!” Mari insisted, grabbing Omori’s other hand to try and prevent him from stopping what Hero was trying to do.

“But he killed you, you should be angry! He took everything from you, everything from your friends!” Omori demanded, struggling against Mari’s iron grip.

“Because of him, Aubrey… Aubrey had to suffer! And Basil’s suffering too! He only ever hurts the ones he loves!” Omori yelled, as Hero tried to crush Omori’s wrist, forcing the younger boy’s arm out over the abyss.

Omori screamed in pain as Hero wasn’t letting up, and unfortunately for Omori, Hero’s will was stronger than he had expected. The knife fell from Omori’s grasp as he couldn’t hold through the pain, with it being sent hurtling through into the abyss of hands.

Hero and Mari let go, pushing Omori back, thankfully not off the edge as the doppelganger managed to reclaim his balance on the stairs, which seemed to expand and shift in response to Omori’s distress.

Right, this place was part of Sunny’s mind. And Omori was a part of this world.

“I hate you… Hero,” Omori yelled, and Hero swore he saw the dripping of tears streaking down that monochrome face, washing away some of the blood.

“I hate you… but I love you…” Omori said, trying to reconcile the emotions he was feeling in this distressing moment.

“Surely the love outweighs the hate” Hero said tentatively, trying to figure out the right words to say. He didn’t want to push too hard at Omori’s crumbling emotional state, he didn’t want to make him fully destructive.

Omori is SAD.

“I hate you for abandoning us when we needed you the most. I hate you even more for hurting Kel like you did” Omori cried, being that he was currently disarmed he could only stumble forward and try to swing his fists at Hero, who was managing to avoid them due to how much the boy was telegraphing his swings.

“I know… I messed up a lot when I left Sunny alone” Hero admitted as he caught Omori’s fist in his hand, managing to avoid the follow up swing.

“You said you loved him, Omori, sure you must have reasons why, right?” Mari pointed out, reaching over to touch Omori on the head and gently stroke his hair like… she used to do for Sunny when he was upset.

In that moment, Hero started to realise... This wasn’t a fight at all. Mari had made it so Omori couldn’t fight them. This was… letting Omori vent. This was letting Omori know that everything was going to be okay. That he could let Sunny see the truth. All they had to do… was convince him that Sunny could be able to handle it.

“I… I love him… because he’s our big brother. He looked after us, and saved us and Basil from the lake…” Omori said, sounding unsure and Hero realised there was more to Omori than met the eye.

“You keep saying… us… a lot” Hero asked, and Mari froze up a little, having the same realization as him.

“Like… you and Sunny are a pair…” Mari pointed out, as Omori swung with his other arm to bat her away from him. She stumbled back a few steps.

“That’s because he’s a shitty older brother!” Omori yelled, his emotional state shifting back into anger as he jabbed at Hero’s feet with his own to try and get his fist free from Hero’s grip, which he managed when the pain surged through Hero’s entirety and he had to let go.

“I hate him the most! Out of all of you, even you, Mari!” Omori nearly screamed, his former bloody appearance starting to return.

“I hate him, so much… so so much!” Omori growled, and the red hands that squirmed around and acted as bridges started to float around Omori, flexing their fingers like a cat would flex their claws.

“I hate that he made me in order to try to run away, to distance himself from what he did,” Omori declared, as the anger started to build in him again.

Omori is ANGRY.

Omori’s face contorted with his unstable anger bubbling below the surface as he closed his eyes to speak, trying to handle the emotions writhing within him.

“I tried to protect him! To help him forget!” Omori yelled, as the hands started to twitch and bend, the sounds of bones cracking as Omori’s emotional state was having its effects on his familiars.

“But you couldn’t hide it away forever” Hero commented, putting his fists up in a defensive stance just in case Omori attacked.

“I tried to bury it so much, but that damn Basil… the real Basil, the one who keeps inhabiting MY Basil… he made everything worse! It wasn’t enough that he made Sunny hang his sister, oh no… he had to make us keep it a secret because it’s worse than just murdering your sister, we all made you think it was a suicide!” Omori screamed, as a hand went flying down into the abyss, clearly to retrieve the knife that Hero had forced down there.

The other hands launched themselves at Hero and Mari, trying to grab onto them.

With a bit of quick footwork, Hero managed to avoid getting grabbed, though the hands had punched through the staircase and path when they had missed. This might be backfiring, Hero felt. He hoped Mari knew what she was doing.

“And you all kept dredging it up! None of you want to just let things be! You keep trying to hurt him by making him REMEMBER WHAT HE DID!” Omori yelled, filled with a furious protective rage.

“Omori, you still love him, don’t you?” Mari pointed out, unfortunately she had gotten grabbed, wincing as the hands started to wrap around her throat.

“I still want to protect him even now! Despite how much he keeps looking for the truth! Even though he knows, deep down that he can’t handle it! I know he can’t handle it! Every time he gets close to even a tiny piece of it all” Omori insisted, as Hero ran over to try and free Mari before she was strangled by Omori’s familiars.

The hands resisted, but Hero was determined to save her, even if they tried to constrict themselves around Mari’s throat to try and throttle the life out of her avatar in this part of Sunny’s mind. The hands started to crumble apart into dust as Hero managed to free her by ripping the hands off of her, though Hero’s hands hurt from the effort of freeing her.

Mari coughed a little, despite the fact that she didn’t need to breathe, it still felt real, even more so given her current existence outside of this pace. 

“Omori, you don’t know that! He can handle it, he has FRIENDS to help him!” Mari yelled, and Omori reached an arm out to the abyss, as the hand that had been sent down managed to rise, holding the glistening knife in its grip, before bequeathing it to Omori.

“He doesn’t have friends, Mari! Not anymore! Not after what he did! Not after how much he tries to deny everything!” Omori declared, grabbing the knife and taking a step towards Mari.

“He’s caused so much suffering, yet he stands by and does nothing! He would rather hide and deny how fucked up he is instead of acknowledging it! He doesn’t deserve friends! Not after how he’s ruined the ones he had!” Omori said, trying to strike Mari with the sharp edge of his knife.

Mari winced as the blade cut into her arm, but it struggled to cut any deeper thankfully.

She looked more determined in fact, as she reached and managed to shift away and grab Omori’s wrist as blood seemed to leak down her arm, the wound closing quickly from her intensified willpower as she doubled her efforts in trying to convince Omori.

“And yet you stand there and enable him to do so. Anything that dares break the facade and lets Sunny potentially face things, you cut down” Mari accused, and Omori hesitated at the accusation.

“Because that’s my purpose! I don’t have to like it! I have to protect him, even if I hate him so much!” Omori retorted, trying to cut Mari again before Hero stepped forward and managed to punch Omori in the gut.  
  
Omori doubled over in pain, it was difficult facing two people at once when you’re just a traumatised 12 year old with an oversized knife.

Hero stepped back, the knife was still a threat after all. He wasn’t sure how many cuts he’d be able to take before he ‘died’ here.

What would happen if he ‘died’ here, trapped in Sunny’s mind? Would his body go comatose since he was awake? His conscious mind stuck dead in another person’s body?

“He wants to be punished, but he’s too cowardly to confess his sin. He knows now that he’s done something wrong, but he’s scared to face just what he’s done wrong…” Omori grunted out, managing to stand up, stumbling a little.

“You’ll all abandon him again… just like you did before. It’s what he deserves… it’s what he deserves but…” Omori accused, though he started to hesitate, his voice wavering, as he tried to call back more of his red hands from the dust at Mari’s feet.

“No! It’s what he deserves for being a murderer!” Omori yelled, gripping at his head, trying to make sense of all the conflicting thoughts and emotions running through him.

“You’re wrong, Omori. I’m not going to abandon him, not again” Hero said angrily, the precariousness of the situation starting to get to him.

“Kel loved her! And he killed her! Aubrey saw her as her big sister, and he killed her! You loved her! And he killed her! He loved her and he killed her! PEOPLE LIKE HIM SHOULD JUST… DIE!” Omori screamed, trying to justify his behaviour, and his purpose. 

Omori’s eyes looked a little wild and uncertain as the formerly emotional doppelganger’s turned upwards in a maddening grin, evidently shifting into another emotional state given his turbulent thoughts. 

Omori is MANIC.

“You are a threat to him, you risk giving him hope!” Omori said, cackling as if he found something funny.

“You think that he’s worth saving! That Basil is worth saving! They’re both as rotten as each other, too broken and fucked up in the head to have value as people” Omori declared, snickering as his eyes looked mad.

“That’s because they’re both worth fighting to help make sure they keep living!” Mari and Hero found themselves yelling together as they gripped each other’s hands for support.

“Pah, I bet you think that he’ll be forgiven. Tch, you’re a complete moron, Hero. He doesn’t deserve forgiveness! And he knows it, that’s why he wants oh so much to just off himself! Save everyone the problem of caring about him!” Omori said, taking pride in rubbing it in their faces.

Omori seemed to come to a realization about something judging by the expression on his face. “I might even help. Actually I should, shouldn’t I? It’s all he’s been trying to have me hide lately. Constantly trying to distance himself from the fact he just wants to split his head open like a watermelon on the pavement cus of what he did to his sister” Omori revealed, his voice sounding a little giddy about the prospect of Sunny dying.

“He thinks he can just run away and ignore how much he wants to kill himself, a bit of pest control for a parasite like him. It’d be fitting, don’t you think…? He killed his older sibling so it’s only fair that his little brother gets to kill him, right?” Omori sang, spinning on the spot before hugging himself, not paying attention to the knife as it sliced at his arm.

“You’re wrong, Omori! I forgive him. I don’t hold anything against him, and I’ve even stuck around to try and make sure you and Basil are okay… it was my fault things got this bad” Mari said, trying to talk Omori down from this path of action, this was actually going very badly for them, whatever plan Omori had before was long gone, and they might have actually made things worse.

“You don’t get to say that! Dead people don’t get to forgive their murderers!” Omori yelled, covering his ears with his hands like a petulant child being told something they didn’t want to hear.

“You’re not real! You’re just some thing that Hero brought in to psych me out!” Omori insisted, stamping his feet against the ground.

Omori is… IN DENIAL.

“I’m very real, Omori. You know what I am as much as Hero does” Mari continued, walking towards him nervously.

“No you’re not! You’re fake! You’re a fake! You have to be fake! There’s no way, you of all people would forgive Sunny! Not after what you did to him!” Omori screamed, and Hero swore that Omori was… glitching. Was the instability of his emotions getting worse? His form seemed to be getting unstable, and it was now he had noticed the static in Omori’s voice.

“It’s the truth! I do forgive him, but most of all I want him to forgive himself!” Mari raised her voice and Omori flinched. A sympathetic response… tied to a bad memory.

Mari noticed it and froze a little, Hero suspected she was flashing back to the day that everything went wrong. It didn’t help that Omori was volatile, like a powder keg waiting to blow, switching between emotions and arguments. Omori couldn’t have ever broken him like this, he wondered if he’d have been more together without Mari here to act as a weakness in his armor.

“He doesn’t deserve it! He’s afraid of it!” Omori yelled, and then... Omori… looked like a deer in the headlights, his chest rising up and down quickly, as he looked to be his equivalent to a panic attack. 

It was just painful to see this, from Hero’s perspective... Omori was no longer just a Guardian anymore, he was Sunny’s repressed feelings and emotions given their own ego and autonomy. Omori’s eyes reminded Hero of that day, that hollow look on Sunny’s face when he tried talking to him after his parents found Mari’s body… seeing that dead look in the boy’s eyes as he was asked if he was okay. Like he had given up on living.

“It’s cus of you… everything’s because of you… everyone loves you despite everything you’ve done to Sunny. Everyone remembers you fondly, like you never had any flaws. But dad blames us, even if he didn’t know. He hates us, we’re not even his son anymore, and maybe mom thinks that too. Sunny thinks she does. After everything you put us through, the only thing people will remember us for is what we did…” Omori said, sounding… hollow as he stumbled towards Mari and tried to… push her, but failed due to the lack of strength behind the push.

Omori was everything Sunny denied about himself, a coping mechanism to distance himself from the pain and sorrow he felt about everything. And this coping mechanism… had developed an ego of their own. And suffered, having known all of Sunny’s pain and sorrow, everything Sunny wanted to deny, every negative emotion he wanted to try and run away from.

And forced to perpetuate it.

Forced to let Sunny stagnate.

Omori was SUFFERING.

“It’s what we deserve…” Omori said as the knife fell from his grasp, and the blade started to crack apart and melt.

Omori… was the Sunny of that day, 4 years ago. Stuck in the reality of his sister’s death at their own hands. And forced to hide it, and let it fester under the surface.

“I bet they think we hated her. They probably know how Mari really died. But they kept quiet. After all, their only son’s a murderer, and that reflects poorly on them. Best to sweep it under the rug…” Omori cried, as Mari simply embraced him, and let him cry.

“They’ll understand, Omori...” Mari insisted, trying to calm the distraught alter and smiling. 

Omori is in DISTRESS.

“No, they won’t! Aubrey and Basil… we don’t deserve their love! We’re monsters! We always were, and always will be! There’s no way Aubrey and Basil could be happy loving a monster, and I bet Basil hates us for everything I’ve done to him to protect Sunny!” Omori insisted, wallowing in the negative emotions that he was exposed to from Sunny.

“No, I don’t think they hate you two. Aubrey might be mad at first… but I think she’ll come around. I still have that charm about me still” Hero said, placing a hand on Omori’s back and rubbing it.

“I… we love her… she hurt us and Basil… but we love her so much. We love Basil so much too… he… he just tried to help… but he made everything worse...” Omori said, sounding a little like a broken record.

“You two aren’t going to get anywhere with them if you don’t learn to move on from what happened, Omori… just give him a chance” Mari encouraged, running her fingers through the boy’s black hair. 

“Besides… I’m sure the two feel the same right? Aubrey still has a soft spot for you, and I’m sure Basil still has feelings… I mean you covered up accidental death together” Hero commented, though Mari frowned at him for how he put that. Really, Hero?

“It’s not something that someone would do for just anybody… ya know?” Hero defended himself, though Mari rolled her eyes at his poor defense, which was fair given that her death was the one which was covered up. Good job Hero, you probably disappointed your dead girlfriend.

“Just give him a chance, Omori. I don’t want to lose either you two or Basil… even if I have to wait until they’re both ready to tell us” Hero begged, and Omori leaned against Mari, trying to avoid his expression.

Omori was… pouting.

It reminded him of Sunny when he was younger and he had gotten embarrassed about something because of what Kel told him about how he looked at the time. 

“You suck” Omori complained after a few moments.

“I’m not going away until you, Sunny and Basil are safe and are living again” Mari threatened in a jovial tone and Hero realised how they had been talking about Omori as if he was his own person.

He was part of Sunny, but he was… different from Sunny. Influenced by Sunny’s experiences and memories but… different. 

“She’s being serious, big sister is gonna haunt her little brothers” Hero joked, trying to interject some levity as Omori had started to calm down from his emotional and turbulent meltdown. 

“Just… shut up, Hero… you’re not funny… you’re as lame as the joke book Sunny dreamed up” Omori said, squirming out of Mari’s grip and trying to half-heartedly punch him.

“I’m still going to keep looking though… I still have a lot of questions about what happened, and I know you’re not going to tell me” Hero said, and now he felt Omori glaring at him for that statement.

“Are you sure you want to do that, Hero?” Omori demanded, annoyed. 

“I know how your power works from when I invaded your dreams to tell you to stop” Omori added, though he could hear the concern in his voice.

“Is it so bad to seek some closure? To understand how it went down? Who knows, I might not even remember what went down in here… never been in someone else’s head before. But… I need to know all I can to help make sure the others can understand” Hero said, shrugging as Omori looked to be getting uncomfortable and fidgeting with his shirt.

“I… I can’t stop you, not any more. But… try not to have a psychotic break from the stuff you see? From the snippets of Basil’s pieces of memory I’ve seen… he… isn’t okay” Omori said, actually showing concern for Basil.

“Tonight’s the last night that I can save both Sunny and you… does Sunny know about what’s happening in here…?” Hero asked, curious as he wasn’t sure how to proceed with the knowledge he had gained from being in here.

“He’s been asleep the entire time where he usually enters his dreams… doesn’t know about anything here but… Hero…?” Omori asked, gripping onto Hero’s hand.

“I’ll… give him that chance. I’ll try. When he finds the Truth of that day… I… I don’t know what I’ll be like. He… he still thinks Mari’s death was a suicide and that he caused her to kill herself. This place… it existed before me. That’s what I’m afraid of, that if he learns that… he caused her death directly...” Omori began, and Hero could see how small the boy really was.

“You’re afraid that the shock of finding out… will change you and make you hurt him?” Hero asked, and Omori nodded in response.

“I’m afraid of being consumed by this place if he does find out… this place isn’t stable at the best of times,” Omori said awkwardly, gazing out at the abyss around them.

“Especially since he knows I have a mind of my own…” Omori added, realising that maybe trying to tease and hint at Sunny more actively was a bad idea.

“I don’t want to die…” Omori confessed, fear in his voice.

  
  
Omori… was afraid of death? It made sense after all, his ego had clearly developed recently, a long drawn out affair caused by Sunny’s repression of his feelings, emotions and memories, potentially inhibited by the repeated cycles of repression of the truth.

Who wouldn’t be afraid of losing awareness of oneself? Omori didn’t have a body of his own, he could only interact with how Sunny interacted with the world. Sure he could enter the dreams of other people and he managed to drag Hero into here, but… complete cessation of existence was… horrifying.

“Maybe you’ll be lucky, and be an ever present annoying 12 year old brat in his ear” Hero suggested, trying to keep the boy from melancholy thoughts, but he wondered if that was the boy’s default state.

“Just… get out of here already…” Omori retorted, trying to avoid looking at Hero but Mari laughed.

“I’m serious, I will haunt you and Sunny, Omori” Mari said, grinning.

  
  
“I’ll even come back from the afterlife to kick your butt if I have to” Mari threatened but Hero saw the small imprint of a smile on Omori’s face.

“Hurry up and go!” Omori complained, embarrassed by his sister’s antics.

“Don’t know how… you got me into this place…” Hero said, rubbing his neck, causing Omori to frown.

“Oh…” Omori said, realising he hadn’t intended for Hero to be able to leave at all initially.

  
  
Omori concentrated, or put on his best impression of it as a pillar of light erupted from in front of the throne of cupped hands.

“There, that should… maybe let you get out of here…?” Omori sounded uncertain, as Mari started to fade.

“Now Hero, walk into the light~” Mari teased, before she was gone like that. Evidently she had been able to leave at any time, after all she had snuck into Sunny’s mind.

Hero was an unwilling visitor. The walk up the steps once more was awkward, just him and Omori silently climbing those crimson steps.

“What will you do now?” Hero asked, as he realised Omori had grabbed his hand at some point in the climb.

“I… think I’ll sleep for a bit. I think tonight’s when Sunny has to face everything… I can’t hide it anymore so it might take its chance… I have to be ready for that” Omori admitted, but it felt like Hero was marching him off to the gallows.

Omori sat down upon the throne of hands and watched, leaning against the hands as he waved a weak goodbye to Hero, as Hero stepped through… into the waking world.

===

When Hero opened his eyes, he found himself lying on a bed. Where was he…? Oh right, Aubrey’s house. He started to stir, trying to sit up as he heard the thumping of footsteps.

“Oh thank god, you’re awake…” he could hear Aubrey’s voice say, as she shook at his shoulders to try and hurry his awakening.

“What the heck happened, bro…? You were trying to calm Sunny down and then suddenly you both fainted…” Kel’s voice was next, his tone very worried as if checking over him like a mother hen whilst Hero tried to bat away his inquisitive brother.

Sunny was still asleep beside him, gripping onto his shirt with a grip that Hero was pretty sure the shirt would give before Sunny’s hold did.

“And what the hell was this doing in your pocket, Hero…?” Aubrey asked, holding up… the violin shard. Hero looked frantic, trying to grab it from her hands, which he managed to, just as Sunny started to stir.

  
  
“Shh! Don’t show that around him!” Hero hissed, looking over at Sunny who’s eyelids were squirming, indicating the boy was going to wake up soon.

He managed to pocket the shard again in time, he didn't want to risk Sunny's reaction to seeing it, especially given how tied it was to the secret that Sunny was starting to remember about.

  
  
Aubrey went quiet, her eyes still red from crying but she nodded nervously, looking over at Sunny with concern. 

“What… happened…?” Sunny asked as he opened his eyes tiredly, his voice croaking as he was still not used to talking again.

“It’s… okay now. Everything’s okay” Aubrey said, unsure of what to say. She had thought she had hurt her friends somehow when the two had fainted.

She felt bad, she still felt the emotions roiling in her but seeing Sunny and Hero drop to the floor suddenly… was a shock to her system. She didn’t even know if they were still alive at first, too panicked to notice them still breathing until Kel had to calm her down before she went even deeper into a breakdown.

Sunny looked at her, and Aubrey could see into his eyes, the expression on his face. He didn’t believe her. She didn’t blame him.

“I’m… not okay, Sunny… I’m… just a monster…” Aubrey said, the tears forming as she decided to try and tell the truth.

“You’re not, Aubrey. Neither are you, Sunny” Hero said, taking Sunny and Aubrey’s hands, and squeezing them slightly.

“Yeah! Hero’s right! You can do cool stuff, like throw TVs at people!” Kel declared enthusiastically and Hero had to snort at how that was ‘cool’.

“You’re not a monster, Aubrey… if you are… then so am I” Hero reassured her and Aubrey was a tad dumbfounded.

“How are you a monster, Hero? You’re the most normal of us all, you’ve learned to move on and…” Aubrey began and Sunny tensed up a little.

“I’m not normal at all. I still haven’t, Aubrey. And… I’ve hurt the people I care about” Hero confessed, admitting to his own weaknesses and doubts.

“But it’s hard, but I’m still trying,” Hero admitted, before smiling.

“But I’ll be strong for my siblings, all of you… you’re my family” Hero declared and Aubrey snorted.

“You’re such a sap…” Aubrey said, trying to laugh as the tears ran down her face.

“Why do you think Mari liked me so much?” Hero teased, and Aubrey snorted again, trying not to laugh.

“None of us are ‘normal’” Hero commented, he disliked the term. They were all normal, they just had special abilities.

“Yeah right, I can throw stuff with my mind and Sunny’s…” Aubrey didn’t know how to describe what she thought she saw from Sunny’s breakdown.

“I’m…” Sunny nervously said, tugging on Hero’s shirt, too afraid to say it despite knowing that Hero was like him as well, a fellow psychic.

“An empath. Sunny’s always been an empath, and he even sees people's emotion like a coloured aura around them. Basil's an empath too for the same reason as Sunny” Hero said, and Aubrey’s eyes widened, along with Kel’s.

“Wait… then that means…” Aubrey began, putting pieces together.

“They were born with the gift” Hero said, and Kel grinned.

“Is that why… those two were so close? The only people who could understand how they saw the world…?” Aubrey sounded a little jealous and Hero nodded, privately smiling about what he was aware about Sunny’s crushes.

“Wait you said ‘none of us’ are normal, does that mean we all got cool mind powers and stuff?” Kel said in a hyperactive tone as he made the realization.

Hero nodded. “I don’t know how yours is, Kel… you’ve mentioned getting weird flashes of like… insight, right?” Hero asked, unsure since Kel was never talkative about them.

Kel went silent and frowned a little as he tried to think.

  
  
“Yeah, it’s weird. I just kinda… get these really strong hunches. I can always feel when someone’s lying. I can’t tell what they’re really feeling like Sunny can but… I always know the right way to throw my ball, whenever something’s coming at me…” Kel tried to explain, fumbling over his words.

Hero laughed a little.

“What’s so funny!?” Kel complained at his brother’s amusement.

“No, No… it’s just… I think that’s like… what do they call it… Psychic Intuition or something?” Hero asked and Kel just tilted his head.

“Is that like… a super sense? Wait does that mean I’ve got the Spidey Sense? I’m Spider Man!?” Kel said hyperactively, and Sunny looked away, but he was smiling at his friend’s antics.

“Please don’t talk about spiders…” Hero deadpanned, and he could feel Sunny rubbing his back in sympathy.

“What about you? You fainted along with Sunny right? Some kind of telepath?” Aubrey assumed

“Nothing so fancy or cool” Hero confessed, rubbing at his neck as he held out his hand to Aubrey.

“I’ve… got the power to sense objects and stuff that have a strong emotional imprint of memory on them… and I can… read them, and live those memories as if they were my own” Hero confessed, a tad embarrassed.

“They called it Psychometry at the hospital. I didn’t have control over it at first… as Kel can attest to” Hero admitted, looking a little sad as he remembered what he had done.

“H-Huh? What do you mean…?” Kel asked, before Hero snorted.

“Don’t play dumb, Kel, for their sake. I’m talking about when I broke down after Mari’s death… I just… wished so hard that I had seen the signs. And then I started… feeling every memory around the house. My mind felt like it was splitting apart so I shut down… so when you tried to get out of my funk…” Hero confessed, and Aubrey’s eyes widened.

Kel looked a tad upset. “I always thought you hated me when you got mad… that you hated looking after me… I… can’t remember everything you said, but it… hurt a lot at the time” Kel admitted, his happiness melting away to show the hurt boy deep down, as Aubrey embraced him.

Kel seemed surprised but just allowed the hug to happen, hands resting against hers as they were clasped around his chest.

“Thanks, Aubrey…” Kel said and Hero tried to smile, and Aubrey just nodded. She was here for him.

“I hurt you with what I said… even I don’t remember all the things I said… but when I saw you crying… and I realised I did that… I… nearly died” Hero admitted and everyone’s eyes widened.

“My powers were unstable from just recently awakening and I kinda… shut them off. But you can’t just do that safely. You can inhibit them, but the power’s still there” Hero confessed and he tried to keep up that smile.

“Is that why you got rushed to the hospital after you started having those headaches?” Kel asked, worried.

“Yeah… all that psychic energy had to go somewhere, and it just… built up with no release to the rest of my body. My professor was at the hospital that day and helped me undo the block I put in place before…” Hero said he was nervous about talking about that day.

“B-Before what… what could have happened?” Kel asked, distraught at the idea of losing his brother.

“I would die from frying my own brain. Even if I survived I could have been brain damaged or in a coma…” Hero confessed and he was surprised when he felt everyone gripping onto him, realising how they could have lost their other older sibling not long after Mari’s death.

Embracing him.

  
  
It felt nice.

“P-Point is… we’re not monsters. We’re still human, despite everything… and despite everything… you’re all my younger siblings” Hero said, trying to smile, before remembering about Basil.

“Even Basil…” Hero said, trying to jog everyone’s memory.

“W-We should check on him…” Aubrey said nervously, nodding.

“He’s not okay… I think he’s been hurting himself…” Hero said, and Aubrey looked worried.

She must have felt a lot of guilt for how she had treated him. Omori hadn’t helped either, playing on those fears and feelings about how Aubrey might have felt about Sunny and Basil.

  
  
“He’s not gonna handle being without Sunny, is he…?” Kel asked, Hero wasn’t sure if it was the boy’s intuition that told him that or not.

“Yeah, maybe… maybe we should spend one last night together with Basil. See if it helps… a sleepover together, as friends, like the good old days…” Hero suggested, and Kel and Aubrey were quick to nod. Sunny seemed nervous, but nodded too.

At least they had a plan now, Hero hoped… 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was supposed to end with Hero going through the light that Omori opened up, but I felt the chapter might have been too short.
> 
> ...Apparently 5k words isn't short according to the other writers in the Omori discord.
> 
> This chapter's like 6.7kish words.
> 
> ...Oops.
> 
> Also sorry if this chapter's a bit of a lower quality, I was trying to go for an idea and I'm still not sure if I really pulled it off. Been influenced by the ideas of Omori sticking around from other fics, and Omori being an gremlin of a 12 year old in the back of Sunny's mind.


	7. Twin Gardens, Arcadia and Aletheia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, another person dreams. A broken and wounded soul, a keeper of the dark secret.
> 
> He finds himself in the garden of his own mind, but every rose has its thorn, and someone wants him to remember something he wanted to lock away forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: Whelp, I posted fluff in the form of Orange Tea.  
> Also Me: Posting Angst at the encouragement of Mikey from the discord and I'm not a coward so... 
> 
> Thanks to Koneko for helping with some grammar issues here and there.

Falling.

That was the very last thing that had happened in that dream of Sunny’s.

It had hurt. He had felt every bit of it.

The flower child could only silently scream as he could feel every bit of him being ripped apart whilst Omori watched impassively.

And the worst part wasn’t the pain and agony of his limbs being torn from their sockets and cast into the abyss. It was knowing that he could feel Sunny’s emotions underneath Omori’s impassive mask.

Behind the vague impassivity that was Omori’s countenance and strong violent feelings of protectiveness… was Sunny’s fear and terror.

His friend was hurting so much, and he couldn’t help him.

He was helpless before the Watcher. And he was going to lose Sunny forever after tomorrow.

It terrified him.

He was going to be all alone.

No one to save him.

No one to protect him from the Something.

No one loves him…

Not even himself.

But this felt odd… usually after these death sequences, he would wake up. But he wasn’t. Was he okay? Was he… really dead? Did he drown? He hadn’t known when unconsciousness and when dreaming had begun. The lines were blurred for him these days, ever since those days…

Those days?

What days?

  
  
He didn’t know what he was trying to think about, but something felt wrong. It wasn’t like the day that Mari had died. When that Something behind Sunny had made him hurt his sister. This was… further back.

Was he back in his own dreams…?

===

WELCOME TO ARCADIA

WHY DID YOU LEAVE US, LITTLE SPROUT?

  
  
WE MISSED YOU…

===

Arcadia? He hadn’t heard that name in… a while? He wasn’t sure when he had last been in this place. Ever since Yew had shown him how to delve into others dreams, he didn’t stick around here much. 

Basil opened his eyes, the light burned his eyes from how bright it had been compared to that strange hellish abyss place that he had been a few times before. This place was different from Sunny’s dreams of Black Space and Headspace. 

He was in… a bed? Inside of a small gazebo made of wood painted white as the snow of the mountains in the distance that he could see from the windows.

Slowly climbing out of it, he slowly walked towards the wood and glass door of the gazebo, unsure about this place that had once been his home in his dreams. Opening it, he beheld a magnificent view.

A massive garden, filled to the brim with flowers and plants, most of them real. But some of them from the fantasy novels his grandmother had once read to him. The garden was nice, a pleasant sight as it was cared for by various figures, fairies?

HAVE YOU RETURNED TO US, LITTLE SPROUT?

A silent voice inquired, he wasn’t sure about the person it belonged to. His memories of this place had started to become hazy after… after… after…  
  


WHERE IS YEW, LITTLE SPROUT?

Gone. Yew was gone. Forever. There was no bringing them back. Not after what the WATCHER… what Omori… what Sunny’s protector had done to them. 

WHERE IS OUR LITTLE FLOWER PRINCE, LITTLE SAPLING?

Yew… had been his shield. His other self, that had helped him through all these trying days. But when Mari died… things had gone worse. He had tried delving into Sunny’s dreams after Sunny had started to shut himself off from everyone. Even after he had begged him to stay with him and that they’d be there for each other.

Sunny couldn’t have done anything wrong. He just couldn’t. It hurt knowing Yew was gone, it hurt so, so, so much knowing his closest thing to a sibling was gone.

Sibling… when had… Yew… first appeared? Basil couldn’t remember why Yew had showed up one day in his dreams. Yew was nice, like a caring older brother. They kinda looked like him, but older. They were him, but not… him. They were themself, and a delight. They protected him in his dreams. They were…

  
Ṯ̸͚̈́h̵͕͚͌e̵͇͂ ̶̩̲̋b̸̺̥̋͆r̷̜͒o̶̹͐̏t̴̨̚͝h̴̯̽̈́e̸̛͈r̷̰̻̈́̆ ̶͈̦̒̉ÿ̴̩͕́̍o̴̧̢͒̆ų̶̟̒ ̷͓̟̋͛w̷̮̽i̴̜̟̿̽s̸͚̦̉h̵̯̋̎ ̸̨̪̀ẏ̴̹͔̾o̵̟̟̔͝u̵͚̦͆̅ ̷̯̜̓ḩ̶̹͐̈́ą̸̃d̴̠̃ ̵̞̋͘i̵̦̮͊n̷͕̾͝ ̷͇̓r̵͚͙̄ẹ̷̅ã̸͖͓l̸̛͈̖͑į̴͒ẗ̴͍̜́͠y̸̜͖̽̋?̶͈͝

What brother? He didn’t have a brother… did he? No… no he didn’t have a brother… right? 

C̴̫̓̚a̶̹̓n̸̡̧̈́ ̴͔̽͆y̸̪̌o̷̘̐ṳ̸͎̊̍ ̸͕̔͘͜r̴̺̿e̵͎͝ȁ̸̟l̶̠͕̾ḷ̸͂̓y̸͎̳̌ ̶̭̂ç̶̒â̷͚̝l̶̛̮̤͌l̸̩͛̉ ̸̨̑t̴̟̚ḫ̸̪̑ë̵̹͓m̴̼̐̏ ̴̢̻̈́y̶͇̟̿o̴̥͓̓͌u̷̙̰͋r̴̠͉̿ ̶̙̯̚̕b̶̡̑̓r̷̳̀̏ò̵̥͒ẗ̶̜̜́͠ḧ̴̤́̀ĕ̴͓ṙ̴̝ ̶̧̅â̷̞f̷̦͔̂̚t̸̢̨͠e̷̦̭͗̚r̸̠̐ ̵͋̅ͅw̶͙̆͠h̶͎̳͊̽à̴̜͠ť̴̗̂ ̸̤͑͘ṫ̸̥͗h̵̛͍̑ȇ̵͉y̸̢̟̚ ̶̤̉d̸͉͌̍i̶̼͐̇d̷̖͕?̷̯̏̋

Who… was this? This… this wasn’t the denizens of this place. This felt… wrong. Why was he suddenly so afraid about this train of thought. But Yew was gone! He didn’t have a ‘brother’ anymore in his dreams. It was his fault. He had tried diving into Sunny’s dreams, he didn’t know about Omori at the time. And neither had Yew.

Yew lend him their body, to protect him from the bad things in others dreams. Just in case. Yew cared a lot about him, he was always reassuring. And that’s why it hurt, and terrified so much the first time he had died in Sunny’s dreams. 

With Omori choking him… and slowly ripping Yew apart, like peeling a banana. Only the banana skin had been Yew. He had felt… wrong after that death. Like he felt like he was… incomplete. And now, he couldn’t do anything when he slept but live as the Dream Basil in Sunny’s head that Omori had made from the pieces of Yew left behind and of himself.

Y̸̢̿̍ë̴̬́͝w̴̫̏̑ ̷͓̥̆i̷̡͌s̷̨̅͜ ̵̛͖̖͐g̸̗̒ǫ̷̪͌̃n̶̬̉̿e̸͔̣̽ ̵̪̙͘a̴̟͗n̶̛͇d̷̺͓̅̒ ̸̟̈́d̷͓̦̆̍ẹ̸͕a̵͎̣̽͐d̴̙́,̷͈̠̽̐ ̵̤͋̕ǔ̷̲̓n̴̠͎̆̎l̸͎͐i̴̻͕̐k̴̗̿͐e̴̝͝ ̶̗̃t̶̙͊̐h̸̗̼̔̆ę̶̨̽ ̴̮ṛ̶͙͐ȅ̸̙̒ã̴͕l̸̙̚ ̶̛̙̇ḅ̵̎̒r̵̞͌o̶̡͈͆ṯ̶̲̽h̸̲̱͂ĕ̸̦̤͠r̸̰̭̊ ̵̜̖̓ẅ̷̤̯́h̸̗̗͌͠ô̶͙͒ ̵͖̖̃ȓ̵̹̎a̴͆̚ͅn̷̪̦͆ ̵̭̒ȃ̶̬̹w̵͖͠ā̴͉̤y̴̯͠

S-Shut up! He didn’t have a brother! He had no family anymore! His grandmother was dead and gone! His father abandoned him to his grandmother. And so did his mother! She didn’t do enough to stop his father’s insistence on abandoning the two of them… two of them?

Two… of them…

  
Two…

There was someone else that their father abandoned, wasn’t there…?

Who…?

M̴̙̋͜a̵̝̮̋̊ŷ̷̪̈́b̶̯̿̓e̸̯͆ͅ ̷͔̱̊̚i̷̫͙̇t̸̛̤̘'̵̭̎͊s̸̡̤̃ ̶͔͒̆b̷̦̈́̂e̸̘͗͒ṭ̴̦̇̓t̷̬̃͂e̴̻͗̎͜r̶̹̉͊ ̵̺̅ẗ̸̮́̅ḧ̷̢́â̸̡̚t̴̯͔̎͋ ̵̡͕͐̕y̶̧̪̓͝o̸̳͌͂ͅü̵̪̎ ̸̬͒f̴͙̊̊o̵͇͉̕r̴̟̚g̷͈̿̽o̸͈͐t̵͕̞̾ ̸̡̘̆ȧ̶̲̫b̸͎̿o̶̝͍̐̇u̴͙͛t̸̺ͅ ̴̘̿̋ͅh̵̙̽̀ī̶͇m̷̢͎͑,̸̬̂͘ ̶̣̣̃ḷ̴̅͐ͅï̸̫͑t̴̙̓̎ţ̵̰͛̔l̸̫͂̽ͅe̷̢̛͐ͅ ̵̨͌s̵̯͕̿͘p̵̝̯̈̎r̷̭̊̿o̶̯̎͘ṷ̵͐̓t̷̨̆.̴̩͎͘͝.̵̢̅̀.̸̍̌ͅ

He… forgot about them? Who was ‘he’ to him?

Was ‘he’ so unimportant that he couldn't remember who this ‘he’ was?

Basil kept walking forward through the garden, but something felt off about this place. The fairies were trying to hide from him now, there was a feeling of fear and terror.

Y̵̖̥̏̒o̴͈̳͌͂ǘ̴̢͕̔r̶̥̰̋̀ ̵̪̔u̶͎̐ẗ̸͎́o̷͉̚p̵͖̥͒͂i̵̺̠̾a̶̮̍ ̴͓̆i̶̖̞͘ŝ̴̱̃ń̵͓̪'̸͎̓t̸̺̪͛ ̸̗͌͒ǧ̷̟ö̴̝́͗i̵͓̋n̴͇̈́g̸̝͓̚ ̷̰̞̅͆t̷̿̌ͅǫ̴̔ ̷̱͕͊ḻ̸̃̈a̷̖̘͆s̸̻͌ṫ̵̨͚͒ ̵͓̽͌f̶͙̐o̵̢͖̎̈́r̶̯̃ẻ̸̯̦v̴̮̈́́ȅ̸̮r̴̟͝

Yes it would! He would be okay, he would be okay. He was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay!

There were storm clouds in the distance and Basil could hear the crack of lightning, but this lightning sounded wrong. They were… screams. Someone’s screams. He recognised those screams. Why did he recognise those screams?

Y̵̰̍͂o̸͍͝u̵̹͐̊ͅ ̶͈̄c̵͕̯ã̸̭͙ṋ̷̭̊͘'̴̹̓ṱ̶̅͜ ̷̗̠͂͠r̴̪̔̀u̷̥͝n̸͓̦̊̽ ̸͉̝͛̚f̸̆ͅr̵͍̦̂o̶̩͇̕͝m̴͙̝ ̶̡̿͠ť̸̪̬͘h̸̿ͅi̷̤͖̒n̵͉̄g̶͍͝s̶̼̕ ̸̟͑̃â̶̬͒n̵̹̤̊̋y̵̛̟̣ ̷̺̇m̸̺̆̊ͅo̷̡̕͝r̵͆͜e̶̊̕ͅ ̷̡̳̍͒t̵̞̓h̷̙̖̐̈́a̴̝͔̅͝n̶̫̰͐̂ ̸͈͙͝S̸̯̫̃u̸̧̓ň̷̨̻͗ñ̶͜͜y̵̢͊͊ ̸̗͖̓̍c̶̢͖͋a̸̛̲̔n̴̼̱͛̇

WHAT IS HAPPENING, LITTLE SPROUT?

Y̷̠̟̌o̶̻̜͐̀u̵͇̙̓̍ ̷͍͇̏͘c̴͇͔͊a̴̜̽̕n̴̡̟͋'̶̮͐t̴̺̚͝ ̴̗̇̂c̸͕͙̈́̕o̴̤̊̍d̶͖̹̎d̸̠̹̽̿l̵̠̯̋ẹ̴̲̀ ̴͇͝h̴͓̄̀ï̶̯̚m̵͛͜ ̷͎͎͒͋f̶̣̋̇o̷̝͗r̵̬̊e̴̙̚v̴͍̪͑e̵̙̪͂̌r̸̥͈̈́

THE GARDEN IS DYING…

T̷͉͂͘ḥ̶̑͗ê̷͚̒ ̵͓̐̕ṛ̸͋ȏ̶͖̱͠t̵͎̍̊ ̷̛̫̝ẅ̴̝́̇a̷̝̱̐͌s̴͙̃̿ ̷̝̳͗a̷͕͑l̶̲̈́͘w̵̠͑a̶̮̝͑͝y̴̡͌s̴̯̓̊ ̷̪̆̚t̷̼̓h̶̥͚̓͝e̶̞̜̓r̵̮͋e̷̖̪̐̓,̷̦͋ ̶͉͇́w̶̡̋̆a̵͈̯̎ḭ̶̋t̸͚͐̓ḯ̸̪͝n̸͇̼̐g̵̨̿ ̷̜̍w̷̠̔h̷̜̏i̸̟͌͌l̵̟̏̚ŝ̴̰t̴͚̂ ̵̡̠y̵̗̔͐ő̷̧̌u̶͚̳͝ ̸̼̯̄̏h̷̙͆͘i̵̡̅͠d̷̳̔̊͜ ̶͉̺̿ḭ̷̧͊͝t̴̠͓̐,̷͖͌̔ ̷̩̏d̸̙͆̃ē̸̬a̵̖͝ř̴̩ ̸̫̌s̵̹̠͛͂i̸͔̿͌s̷͉͉̿̓ţ̵͖̆e̸͚̾͠r̷̡̯͒͝

WHAT ARE YOU?

̴̧͊̃I̶̦͔̍ ̶̡͙͌a̸̯͛̈́m̷̬̌ ̶͙̪͛̓t̶̬͗ḣ̴͓á̷͍t̴̜̽̀ ̵̗̫͐b̶̘̈̄ų̴̛̕b̴͉̽b̴͈̄l̷͈̍̊e̵̥͒̂s̷̤̽͛ ̷̻̙͋ȃ̶̧͇n̸͎̕ḍ̸̍ ̷͍̤̇͛b̸̭̠̌̃ö̵͈͓́i̸̼͝l̵̡̇̔s̶͈̠͒ ̸̗̪̍̎u̶̳̮͒͝n̷͕͊͝d̶̲̼̅͠è̶̮͉͑r̵̺n̶͔̹̏͘e̶͈͈̽a̸̬̤͆̓t̶̟̆ͅh̸̺̏͝ ̵͕̃̽͜t̶̮̽̒ĥ̷͖̥̓ë̸͓̩́̎ ̴̲̻̈g̸̡͉̿ǎ̸̞͖̕ŕ̸͈̦d̴͇͇͠é̸̗ǹ̷͉

UNDERNEATH… THE GARDEN?

I̶̘̟͗ ̵̺͆̿a̴̝͂͠m̶̦̒ ̸̜̹͑̈t̷̪̻͐͘h̴͎̺͛â̷̞̹t̶͓̞͌ ̶̞͈̔w̴̢̮̐̐ḣ̷͔͜i̴̪̝̇c̶̛̯͕̅h̸̥͋ ̵̗̈͝r̸̮̙̍͐ȅ̵͔m̶͉̐̚e̵̩̠̚m̴͇̈̃b̵̊͜ę̵̈ṟ̴͐s̵͎̘̅,̴͐͜ ̵̲́̄I̷̢̛̖͊ ̶̗̟̏ả̷̟̻͝m̵͑̓ͅ ̷͉̐t̴̮͓͒̕h̸̗̋è̶͖̝ ̸͎͒ẗ̶̪̫r̵̩͠u̶̺̓t̸̝̲̊̇h̸̪̰͑ ̴̭̿t̶̨̟̍ĥ̵̡̥̓a̸͈̿͗t̷͚͋̓ ̷̺̾͘w̵̟̏͝h̸̹͚̾ḯ̶̲̐c̶̦͎͆h̵͖̺̎͝ ̶̙͂y̵̝͇͝͝o̴̞͐̕ư̴̲͌ ̸̛͕̪͘h̸̻̗̋̄i̷͍̹̍d̵̪̍̽ȇ̷̥̂ ̶̡̫̔f̵̱̠̓̈r̷̫̓o̷͒̔ͅm̴̙̒̊ͅ ̸̤͕̍t̸͚̺͐͠ḧ̷͙̯́i̴̳͝s̴̜͐̾ ̸͈͂̃ŵ̶͍͎̒o̷̫̒u̴̝̦ṉ̴ḍ̵̑̆ë̷͓́͗d̵̯͇͂ ̵͇̔͂ͅs̴͉̗̅ő̷͓̔û̸̬̕l̴̬̝̋̂

I WON’T LET YOU HURT HIM

Y̶͚͋̐̏O̸̗͂̏̾̄̕͝U̸̳͎̮͆̀ ̸̲̬̿C̵̬͎̬̮̰̞͑̈́ͅA̵̻̽͊͗͌N̶͙͈͖͕̣̘͛'̵̘͛̒͝T̴̡͚̟̲͖̟͗ ̷͙̔̓̎͊̕̚͠S̸̲̘̓̓̾̚͠ͅT̸̡̯̝̗̗̯͗O̴͙͖̼̘̒P̴̪̰̠͑͊̒͆ ̵̘̠͓͕̭͛̑̽̔͜͝M̴̢̹̜̊̔͗̆E̵̝͑̀̋ͅ ̴̧͕̑̆̎̃̀͝ͅT̵̡̡͉̘̲̲̈́̄̌̐̃H̶͈̯͈̟͙͑̔̾͝͝I̶͚̫̐̈́̋͘͝ͅS̸̳̪͍͚̱̭̏ ̶͚̭̥͇͐̚T̸̘̘͓́̅̅̋̌Į̷̦̋̂̇͠M̷̢̱̤͗͐͜͝E̶̥͍̣͒͋̃̉̈́

The argument between the voices was disorientating, before he felt a sharp metallic scream that forced him to his knees. Was he going mad? Was his mind that broken from all those deaths in Sunny’s dreams? 

The garden started to shake, and he could hear the screams of the fairies as their bodies… turned into… oh no. Thorns of shadow and eyes were forming out of them, strangling the life out of them before they melted into thick sludge that struggled to crawl across the ground.

The sludge was eating away at the grass, and the garden was starting to wilt in droves as parasitic plants erupted from the trees and flowers, cannibalising the flowers from which they sprouted from.

The smell of rot and decay was thick in the air, and it started to rain. But this rain wasn’t like water… it felt like liquid fire against his skin as the garden that had been a sanctuary burned, and Basil coughed as the air started to foul. He was struggling to breathe. 

And then he felt vines start to wrap around his throat, and Basil realised the ground under him was sprouting with thorny trunks of wood, of some kind of wood that Basil did not recognise. But it was a kind of wood that DID NOT BELONG HERE. 

His eyes hurt when he looked at it, like its very existence was a hazard to him, before he felt the grip tighten, as blood ran down the wood and vines from the thorns digging into his throat… and then the eldritch wood dragged him under into the depths of the ground.

He could feel the earth churning and liquifying the deeper he went, feeling the dirt and rock scratching and chipping at his skin, before he was dragged deep into an underground cavern.

  
  
As the vines descended, the air started to get colder. 

But Basil could feel it. 

The permeating sensation that was spread across the cavern. A chilling, smoldering rage. 

At the bottom of the cavern, where the vines were dragging him, was a garden made of… crystal? The flowers and vines, everything here was made of various different coloured crystals. But the garden was untended, this place was deserted.

W̵͓̼͋͌E̷̢͉̽Ļ̴͝C̷͔̎̑Ȍ̷̖M̷̝̘̀̕Ē̷͕ ̷̝͖̈́T̶̼́O̵̝͋̕ ̷͕͋A̸̞̭͊͗L̷̺͙͗͝Ẹ̵̛̖Ṯ̸͋͜H̴̢̬͒Ȩ̷͗I̵̤̻͊A̸̝̍

̵̯̓

̶̭̈́̎I̸̙̋͜T̸̞͂͒'̴̻̻͑͗S̸̜͛̚ ̸̤̦̚T̸ͅI̷̻̣̍M̶̲͊͂͜E̵̥̒ ̵̺̕Ť̷̡̤̇Ở̴̭̬ ̵̹̉̽R̴̯̈́Ẹ̶̓͋M̷͍͝Ḛ̵͊M̴̭͖̓́B̴̹̞̽͗E̷͉̳̎̈R̶͈̩̄̚

̵̝̠̈́

̸͇̄Ẃ̸͔̫H̴̩̓Ḁ̴̱͗T̷̥̾ ̴̜͓͛̈́T̶͇̓̈H̸͙̽͜E̷̘̐Y̴͔̳̑̈́ ̸̡̣͝D̷͜͝I̴̛͔̘̐D̶͈̿

̴̲͂

̶̼͋̚Ỵ̷̕͘O̷̞͙̔̚U̷͕̚ ̸̘͗M̶̗̉A̵̻͑D̵̦́͘͜E̶̬̳̅ ̶̧̼͑E̴̻̬̅V̴̙͖̾͛Ę̶̰͊R̴̦͊̈́Y̵̛͈T̶͖͘͜Ḧ̶̻Ì̸̖̌N̴̯͂Ģ̶̿͆ ̴̲͑͝W̸̮͘Õ̵̬̚Ř̵͇̻̋S̵̲̈́͋E̶͙͑

̴͚̯̌

̵͓͙͒̾B̸̪͜͝Ē̵͎͆C̷̦̞͌͝Ǎ̶̛̰U̸͈̾S̵͍̔̓Ë̶̡́ ̶͎̞̋Ǫ̵͗͑F̵̳̬̈́̃ ̴̨̾͘H̴̰͋̈Ĭ̵̫̜S̵̱̉̆ ̶͙̏͊S̵̲̏͝Ḯ̸̠N̸͚̲͋̈́

̸͕̺̄͑

̵̡̤̾̒Y̶̻̐O̶̹̒U̷̺͓̾́ ̴̼̋̀C̶̞̏A̷̡̬͗͘N̷̠̍ ̴̫̊͝N̵̞͂Ọ̷̺̈́T̵̥͛ ̴͕́̂H̵͖̓̎E̵͉͎͘Ą̴̝͐̾L̸͐ͅ

̸̱̼̊

̶̡̈̂U̴͇̕N̸̺̍T̴̜̓̾I̸͓͐L̵̬̿̂ ̶̣͈̄͗Ỵ̸͈̉O̶͓͊̌Ū̵͙̯ ̵̯̱͋D̶͙͒O̸͙͙͆

The vines loosened and set Basil down on the path leading to the gated courtyard of the garden. The smell of steel and… tears was thick in the air as he took a timid step towards the gate, the vines wrapping back around his neck before he felt the rest of the tree retract into the vines around his throat, like a choker. Basil tugged at it, but it would not budge. In fact it resisted like a parasite, biting into the skin of his hand as he tugged more.

He decided to leave it, he wouldn’t be able to remove it anyway. He was so tired, so tired of dying. So tired of everything. He just wanted everything to stop hurting him. He just wanted his friends back. It hurt so much knowing that the people he loved did nothing but hurt him. 

Did he deserve it? What was ‘his sin’, it wasn’t his own?

_"̷͇̄Ȟ̷̯͈͌e̵͕̚͝ŷ̶̩̺͘.̶̯̿.̸͙̗̃.̶͇͍͊̑ ̴̳̹̐b̸̖͓͒i̷̡̞͒g̶͙̠͒̐ ̴͔̍b̴͍̜̕r̴̙͗͝ȯ̴̖t̷̩̯́̚h̸̖̍è̵̝̝̃r̴͇̰̅.̸̮̚͝.̶̯̕.̵̲̐?̴̨͙̆̕ ̵͕͗͠Ẅ̶̟̪́̈́ḣ̶̨ä̶̘̫́͆t̶̨̙̊'̵͎͋̋s̷͎̐ ̴͈͉̋͝i̸̟̇t̷͉̚͜͝ ̸̣̈͛l̶̤͝i̵̠͗k̶̭͖̉̓e̶͚͆.̷̫̔.̵̢͍͑.̶͇͇̓?̸̘̣̂ ̴̣̽͒T̶̡͓̉o̵̅̎͜ ̷̨̰͊̆h̷̩̲͑u̷̼̗͂̉g̴̢͑ ̶̢̢̕̚s̶̥̓o̴͖͌ḿ̴̜͇ĕ̵̳ͅo̶̘̙͗n̷̼͖̅͝ẻ̴̢?̵̨̾"̷̭͆̃_

Basil froze up. What… was that voice? That was… his voice. It sounded younger but it definitely was his own voice.

The closer he got to the gate the more uncertain his footing felt.

_"̸̯Ȉ̸͙̾͜.̴͉̍͘.̸͙̉͜.̵̱͐ ̵͕̂͝I̵̡̝͂͆ ̴̘̥̐̐d̵͉̼̈̐o̵̘̣̾n̸̮͊'̴̘̆̑t̸̟̩̍ ̵͈͍̍k̵̝̜̈́n̴͓̂ơ̶̥w̵͈͖̔.̸̤̙̏̄.̵͇͗.̷̗̥̚"̴̜̉̈_

That voice, it was older, but it wasn’t his. They sounded so unsure of themselves. But it felt familiar to him.

_"̶̫͂M̷̲̝̂ā̴̰y̶̧̹̕b̸̠̃͑ẽ̸̝̠̋ ̵͇̒ȍ̴̤n̵̞͇͘e̴̬̎ ̷̞̊̒ḑ̴̋̄ả̶̡̘ÿ̶̠͈́ ̵̯͓̃̄y̶̬o̶͇̝͂ṳ̸̗̿̊'̴̙̔l̴̳̦̓l̸͖̟̿̍ ̶̼̹̽k̸̨̞̄̎n̴͈̍͝o̴̠̜̿́w̷̢̘͊ ̸͑ͅw̸̮͖͊h̵̙̗͂a̵̹͛̔t̷͓̼̽̓ ̷͕̄̐ȉ̸̡̳̏t̶̖͛̑'̶̣̭̑s̶͈͝ ̵̪̠̅͝l̸͇̚i̶̟̜̅͒k̵̬̾e̸̛̗,̴͓̃ͅ ̴̰͇̾̾b̴̢͕͌î̵̙̲g̵̱͔ ̵̩̑b̸͔̥͊r̶̾ͅo̸͓̓!̷̹̞̚ ̷̫̤͂̊I̸͍̮̔'̴͕͈̋̓l̴͈͙͒̊l̸͎̳̈́̋ ̸̮̆b̵̡͕̃e̴̳͝͝ ̶̫͆ả̵̬̆b̷͈͗l̴̟̱̃é̸̱ ̸̲͋͐t̵̡̀̕o̷̢̓̾ ̷͍̻͆s̴̳̈́̅h̴͎͋ǒ̶̡w̸̞̋ ̸̙͌̈́y̵̡̘͊o̷͉͊̂ṷ̷̮̒ ̵̝̣̎̐ḭ̶̋͜n̶̮̒̑ ̴̗̲̊̌l̸̲̎͜͠o̷̬̼̊ť̴̨s̵̥͛̿ ̷̪͓͗͊o̵͇̪͌͠f̶̙̺̂̅ ̶̩̫̿̕h̵͖̅̾ṳ̸͌g̸̤͘s̷͇͛!̵̠̪̄"̴̖̟͛͊_

His own voice again, he didn’t know why but tears were starting to form in his eyes. He didn’t know what he was hearing. Who was that other voice?

_"̷͕̘̌̕Ĩ̴̝̩'̸͎̒͊ḍ̷̰̓͘.̸̢̐.̶̰̊.̷̪̝̅ ̶͓̮̀l̷͉͊̽į̴̫̐͂k̵̠͆ë̵̩́͌ ̶̞̪ť̴̘̆ḥ̴̟̎̿ḁ̴̱͗t̶̰̂͜.̸̧̮͒ ̴̯̈Ỉ̴̖'̵̯͍̃d̸̡̝̓ ̴̫̏̉l̷̺͊i̴̤͗͑k̸͇̀̆e̷͔̒͛ ̷̳̝̽t̷̥̽̊ŏ̸͇̪ ̵͔̈́f̷̨̛̜̎ẻ̶̟e̸̖͝l̸̟̐͒ ̶̻̞͘ẗ̶͍̥́͛h̶͎͝e̶̲͚̽̕ ̷̬̀͑w̴̨͖̎͌ä̵̡͓́̃r̴̭̖̄͝m̷͚͚̄t̴͈̂h̶̖͂͑ ̵̩̰̄́ő̸͖̲f̵̖͎̿͝ ̵̯͍à̶̱͚ṋ̷̟͗o̵̝̲͛͐ţ̴̤̋h̵̭̆̀e̸͖r̴͍͆͝ ̷̙̔p̶̻̲̕e̵͓̳͐r̶̟̓͝s̸̟̹͝o̴͚͘n̵͔̮̂.̷̳͚̃̊.̶̗̮̑.̴̢̞̽̚"̸̭̟̄̃_

That other voice, they sounded sad. Like they were on the verge of tears. Who was this other person? Had they never hugged someone? Mari and the others had given him lots of hugs when she had been around, he couldn’t ever imagine not being able to feel the warmth that a hug brought.

Even now, he wished for them, despite the sin that he was keeping secret. He just wanted them to hug him, to tell him that it was going to be okay. He didn’t know how much longer he could stand keeping it secret. Sunny couldn’t do anything wrong. He just couldn’t. He had to protect Sunny. But it hurt so much.

He placed his hand on the gate, and started to push it open slowly, it resisted a little due to how rusted the gate had become.

But it was fitting, this was a place holding memories he didn’t want back.

Memories that he wanted to stay gone.

This was Aletheia.

A garden of remembrance.

Arcadia was his version of Sunny’s Headspace…

A safe haven he had forgotten to use and paid for it by dying repeatedly in Sunny’s dreams by playing the part of Omori’s Basil.

But Aletheia.

Was more than just his version of Black Space.

It was more than just some place to hide his traumatic memories.

_It was a place to hide the entire existence of someone all together._

_A place where the memories were SUPPOSED to die._

The air seemed to thicken up as he made a few steps forward into the garden.

The flowers glistened with colour from their various crystal forms.

  
  
A figure sat at the end of the courtyard, sitting on a chair made of black crystal thorns that seethed with eyes. The figure’s body was made of what seemed to be TV static, it hurt to look at but it was clear that the reason why Basil couldn’t bear to look at them was because he represented something that he wanted to forget.

"I bet you don't even know my name anymore. It's a shame that Yew isn't here anymore, I miss him a lot. Fern was so happy to see you’re back but… without Yew here… I have to take matters into my own hands to make sure of something…” the figure spoke, his voice sounded distorted but to Basil’s ears he could understand it despite the increasing and decreasing variations of distortion in their words.

“Who… are you?” Basil asked nervously, shuddering when he heard them say Yew’s name. Yew was the one who taught him how to delve through dreams, but Fern… Fern was like a kindly mother. She was the one who created the garden that was Arcadia. 

But this figure must have been connected to them, right?

In plant symbolism, Yew trees could symbolise protection, but also symbolise death.

Ferns could represent shelter, which is what Arcadia was supposed to be.

But this person… knowing the running theme of the names of figures in this place, it was probably plant themed right?

“I am Pansy” the figure said politely, beckoning him to sit at the table from which they looked to be drinking… tea?

Pansies… what did they represent? Thoughtfulness and remembrance right? Figures.

It fit that someone tending to a garden that looked to be a solidification of the memories that Basil wanted gone was named after something that symbolizes that.

“Are you here to give me some kind of speech or something?” Basil asked, and the vines tightened around his neck, as he felt himself moving to sit down in an adjacent chair.

“Not really. I’m here…” Pansy said, sliding the saucer of ‘tea’ over to him.

“To hand over custodianship, if anything. To be quite frank, I’m tired of hiding away all these little bits and pieces you’ve left here over the years. And knowing you, you’ll forget all about Sunny too. And the garden’s full enough as it is” Pansy commented in an accusing tone but despite that though there was no malice behind those words.

“That’s…” Basil objected, he didn’t have to take this! He stared at the tea, watching as it bubbled with some mimicry of heat but there was no warmth from it. The colouration was a deep, deep black. What was this? It was tea of some kind but from what kind of plant?

  
  
Was it liquid memories?

“Oh come now, you’re talking to an aspect of your own mind and self, do you really think you can lie to me, of all people? You’d silently suffer whilst Sunny moves away and you’d forget about everyone to try and soothe the pain” Pansy lectured, rolling his eyes as he listed off some of his faults.

“That is why you decided to never fix the photos, right? You knew you could have just resolved the issue by telling the truth to Aubrey. You can’t comprehend the idea that Sunny might have hurt Mari intentionally” Pansy jeered, tapping the fingers against the table between them as the eyes in the crystal looked forward and at him.

“You love him too much for that, that’s why you tried to hang the body. Everyone think’s it was a suicide, therefore Sunny is safe. Meanwhile you’ve lost both of the people you love. The girl hates you for what she thinks you did, and you don’t have the courage to tell the truth because that would ruin your perfect little image for the boy you love” Pansy taunted, his words may not have carried the tone of malice but he could tell it was intended to get a rise out of him.

“You’re content to hurt both of them because you think you deserve neither of them, hell I bet if Mari was alive like you worry she was, you’d jump and take the blame for the whole thing just to save Sunny. You’d willingly be seen as a murderer just to protect a boy who doesn’t feel the same kind of protectiveness towards you” Pansy said in disgust, it hurt to hear this part of himself tear into him like this.

Was he that broken now that even his own fragmented mind hated him for his choices in life?

“So much for not giving speeches” Basil retorted, he was too tired to tolerate this, his frame jittered and shook as he was struggling to keep his fear under control.

He couldn’t escape this, not from his own mind. He wanted to wake up. He wanted to wake up. He couldn’t wake up. Why couldn’t he wake up?!

“Dearie me, is something wrong…? Are you wondering why you can’t wake up?” Pansy asked in faux concern as he picked up the tongs on the table and added a cube of sugar to the tea cup in front of Basil.

The sugar hissed and spluttered as it melted in the strange liquid that masqueraded itself as a type of tea.

“Why…?” Basil asked, his voice shaking.

“Because, dear… there’s something behind you” Pansy said in a cold distorted voice.

Basil’s eyes widened as he shook, looking down at the vines around his neck. They were no longer vines. They were that damned shadow creature he kept seeing when he was awake. And its teeth were right around his neck, its eyes staring up at him.

“That thing is surprisingly hospitable for a guest, you know. Of course, it’s not like the one up above that likes to lurk about like it owns the place and not even Fern can chase it off entirely no matter how hard she tries” Pansy said casually, reaching over and affectionately scritching one of the teeth around Basil’s neck like it was a simple pet.

“But we’re getting side-tracked, my dear… precious… flower child…” Pansy said, and Basil could feel the malevolence from Pansy burning into his skin as the figure ran its fingers across his chin.

“Why did… you think about nooses that day?” Pansy asked casually, stirring the fetid mixture in the cup with a spoon that melted away into the sludge of memories. They lifted the cup up.

“You know the answer but want to ignore it. You worry your friends will hate you, knowing what you are…” Pansy added, bringing the cup to their nose and sniffing the aroma, before chuckling.

“What you were helpless to stop. Afraid of them knowing... Of your failure. Of your abandonment. Of your suffering” Pansy crooned, delighting in their prolonging of this charade before they brought the cup to Basil’s lips as the boy struggled to try and get away.

“W-What is that…?” Basil asked, trying his best to avoid the cup of tea as it sizzled and boiled in the cup. Whatever it was, it was not good. He didn’t want to stick around any longer!

“My dear… for you… a cup of Rosemary tea” Pansy said casually, though the tea was anything but rosemary. But he knew what it meant. Remembrance. That is what it meant. Basil tried to close his mouth before Pansy snickered, and poured the tea on top of his head.

And everything burned. As Basil was forced to remember. Things that he wanted to forget. And in that split second before everything went dark, he saw the static peel away around Pansy, and he could see a younger version of himself looking back at him. Angry. Pansy’s eyes were blood red and his expression was twisted in some kind of rage, and there were tears streaking down his face.

===

_“I’ve told you to stop getting involved with fights at school, R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪!” the father yells, admonishing the fuming young boy in front of him. The boy is struggling to maintain his composure as Basil watches nervously from the corner of the bedroom, hiding behind the toybox as he timidly tries to make himself scarce._

_“They! STARTED IT!” the older brother yells, clenching his fists as he glared at the man who claimed to be their father._

_“I don’t care if they started it or not! You got involved! You reacted and now you got expelled from school because you broke the boy’s arm!” the father yells, staring down at the older boy like he was the dirt beneath his feet._

_“They wouldn’t leave Basil alone!” the older brother yells angrily, and Basil can feel the roaring anger in his brother’s voice. He gets glimpses of what he wants to do to their father. To want to beat him bloody._

_“And the boy needs to be toughened up, he can’t have some fancy shield like you can, R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪” the father scoffs, glancing over at the toybox, aware that Basil is hiding there. It’s not like Basil was that good at hiding._

_“So I should just stand there and watch as my brother is begging me for help?!” R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ screams as the father looks enraged, as if the boy was daring to ask a hard question that to the man felt obviously easy to answer._

_“Yes! You wasted a lot of money protecting the boy, now I’ve got to deal with trying to convince the principal to take you back, you damn monster” the father declares, rolling his eyes, his voice rippled with agitation coating his tongue._

_“He’s not a monster! He’s my big brother! He’s a hero!” Basil says it as he runs between the two of them, hands held out as he tries to protect his brother, fearing that his father was going to try and hurt R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪._

_It’s pointless anyway. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ can’t be hurt. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ can’t feel pain much. Other than heat and maybe the occasional sunburn. He was a Latent, and his power manifested as a telekinetic barrier around himself. He could affect things that interacted with his barrier, but either way, R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ didn’t know the closeness of someone’s touch. His barrier was always in the way, keeping people away with how thick it was. And he struggled to lower it ever, and it was always active._

_“You’re just as much of a monster as R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪, with your creepy way of knowing how we feel. Staring at us like some little psychopath, reading us like we’re some picture book, no wonder you get bullied so much” the father sneered, taking out his anger towards the victim in all of this._

_The poor boy who was bullied by his classmates for being too sensitive and nervous around others. Especially going to a fancy private school on his parent’s dime._

_“Speaking of which, I thought I told you to stop drawing attention to yourself, Basil! You get bullied because you make a prime target of yourself instead of laying low like I told you!” the father roared and Basil could feel the anger burning under the man’s skin._

_He gets flashes of the way the man looked at him and R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ with disgust. He’s never looked at them with love in his eyes. The only person who ever did that was their mother, and he can hear her sobbing outside the door, unable to help her children for fear of the man’s wrath._

_“I did!” Basil insisted it was the truth, but he braces himself as he sees the anger on their father’s face intensify and he gets a quick mental flash of their father looking at his hurt body with hatred in his eyes._

_He can see the fist hurtling towards him. Time seems to slow for a few moments, as if he’s going to experience what it’s like to die. He’s snapped out of it when he feels his brother grab him. He can feel him touching him, actually touching him._

_  
__  
__Their father’s fist makes contact with him but doesn’t... he looks up and sees that something in the air is blocking it. Did… did R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ save him? Shield him?_

_Their father winces from his fist making contact with an unbreakable object like the field, and shakes his fist as he stumbles backwards. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ rests his hand against Basil’s shoulder, and he manages to push his brother out of the way onto the carpeted floor as his father swings back in a rage, forgetting that Basil’s no longer there._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ grabs their father’s shirt tightly with one hand, and their father realises what’s happening. There is fear in his eyes as R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ swings with his other hand, acting out of protective fury for their little brother as R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ lets go in time with his swing._

_Their father goes hurtling through the air like a rag doll, crashing through the doors, shattering the locks from the force of the impact as they’re blasted off their hinges and their father slams against the metal railing of the second floor hallway that overlooked the foyer._

_Their mother sees what happens, looking at her husband and then looking with worry at their children. Tears are in her eyes as she looks afraid. Basil can see it, the fear in R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪’s eyes as they realised the enormity of what they did. Their father is bleeding from the mouth, dazed from the impact but alive. Unfortunately alive._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ looks at his hands with fear in his eyes as he realised what he was capable of. Basil runs over to try and hug him, but he shudders at feeling his brother attempt to hug him through the field. His brother’s in shock, barely able to process that he nearly killed their father. Their mother looks at them with fear herself, scampering away, afraid that she is next as she rushes to call the ambulance._

_For the two of them… it’s just a reaffirmation of what they were told. They are monsters._

===

_Their mother sends them to live with their grandmother, she claims it’s to protect them, to help them live a normal life and have a happier life than what she could provide. She says she’ll come by and visit. The days come and go, weeks turn into months. She never ends up visiting._

_Every time she made a date to visit, something from her job came up. Grandma’s nice though, she’s sweet and unconditionally loving. She understands what happens. She jokes that their father deserved it._

_She doesn’t hate them for being born this way. She tells them it runs in the family, she herself was clairvoyant. She reminds them she loves them every so often. They need it._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ needs it the most. He tries to get used to the new school, living in Faraway is better than being cooped up in their family home. It’s something new, a more simple life. Basil has his plants and books to distract him from the disrepair affecting their family._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ doesn’t. He’s reminded how different he is all the time. He struggles to let down his field, despite how much he wants to turn it off. Basil tries his best to cuddle him in their sleep in the bed they share. It doesn’t really help that much but R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ appreciate the gesture._

_Grandma’s starting to get old though, starting to sleep more. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ thinks he’s a waste of space, he tries his best for Grandma, despite the smile on her face when he helps, R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ second guesses everything. Basil knows he’s hurting but he doesn’t know how to help him._

_They had to get vaccinations today at school, and the doctors were confused by R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪. It took an hour for him to try and lower his field to get the jab, the doctors were understanding because he was a Latent but that didn’t make it any better. Some of the kids joked about how scared he was of needles._

_Mama hired a caretaker for grandma, because she’s starting to get old. Grandma can do some things by herself but she’s getting old and it’s clear her health is starting to fail. The caretaker is nice, her name’s Polly. Basil’s still scared of her. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ avoids her, he doesn’t want her to get hurt._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ started to starve himself, Polly caught him in the bathroom trying to take a steak knife to an arm. She had to wrestle with him for the knife and talk him down, but he ended up crying a lot. He refused to eat despite Polly’s insistence. Basil tries to convince him but he goes to bed hungry despite Basil trying to get him to eat._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ started to get angry and started to lash out. Basil starts to get scared of his brother, he can feel the pain his brother is feeling but he can’t help. He doesn’t know what to say._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ started staying out late, coming home in the middle of the night when Polly’s not home._

_Basil made a new friend, her name’s Aubrey and she introduced him to a bunch of new friends. Things might be looking up for them. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ avoids her when she comes over, he’s been getting more mad lately and it’s difficult to sleep hearing him cry in the bathroom by himself._

_===_

_Basil was going to brush his teeth that morning, he thought it’d be normal. He didn’t expect to open the door and…_

_===_

But Basil refused

Y̵͕o̶͖͘u̵̹͝ ̶̰c̷͎͌a̴͈̐n̸̻̎'̷̤͠t̶̙͐

_But Basil refused._

_Y̵͕o̶͖͘u̵̹͝ ̶̰c̷͎͌a̴͈̐n̸̻̎'̷̤͠t̶̙͐_

_But… Basil…_

_Y̵͕o̶͖͘u̵̹͝ ̶̰c̷͎͌a̴͈̐n̸̻̎'̷̤͠t̶̙͐_

_Basil…_

_Y̵͕o̶͖͘u̵̹͝ ̶̰c̷͎͌a̴͈̐n̸̻̎'̷̤͠t̶̙͐_

===

_Basil was going to brush his teeth that morning, he thought it’d be normal. He didn’t expect to open the door and… and… and…_

_===_

_nO_

_Y̶̳̋ö̸͎́ų̵̇ ̶̳̅m̶̘͠u̷̢͠s̵̭̅t̶̨̿_

_I dOn’T wAnT tO_

_y̸͙͌o̵͔͌u̷̝̒ ̸̬̊h̴͕̄a̶̝̋v̴̲͂e̶̳̕ ̷̫͋t̸̖͛o̸̹_

_wHy_

_ẻ̸̲v̸̳͗e̴͉͊r̸̝͂ỹ̶̖o̶͔̔n̴̡͂ȩ̸̚ ̴̰̆w̸̛͕i̷̡͌ĺ̶͍l̷̥̒ ̶̡̃a̴̻̽s̵͉̄k̶̜͘ ̷̬͆q̸̖̾ư̵̺ë̴͔́s̵̯͐ẗ̸̲́i̴͎̍o̶͌ͅn̵͓͌s̸̥̒ ̶͔͝w̷̙̉ḧ̴̙́e̶̯͌ņ̷͝ ̵͕̈́t̴̫̽h̶̥͛e̴͎͛y̶͔͠ ̵̫́f̵͖̈i̷̲̔n̶̤̔ḏ̷̌ ̵̼͂t̶̡h̶͍͋e̵̠̽ ̵̳̾t̴̎ͅṙ̸̫ṵ̸̓t̶̲̉h̶͉̐_

_tHe TrUtH?_

_a̷̘̕b̸͍̃o̵͑ͅu̵̢̒ţ̶̈́ ̵͖̑m̶̗̑a̷̡r̸̻͝i̸͎̐.̶̲̃ ̶̘͘_

_o̸͖͠m̷̓͜o̸͈͋r̶͉̍ï̷͙'̵̝̃s̶̲͆ ̴̘͠g̶̠̃ĕ̴͓ț̷͘t̵͚͌i̸̮̅ň̶͚g̸̈ͅ ̷̫̊d̷̢̿e̸̳̎s̵̢̑p̵͍̌ě̵̤r̴̺̕a̴̲̿t̵͍e̸̲̅.̶̫͑ ̷̥́_

_s̶̾ͅŭ̵̬ñ̷̞n̷̪̒y̴̢̚ ̵̮̾i̵̮͝s̷̥̾ ̴̬͂f̸̢̍ȋ̸̮n̸̠̔d̶̨i̵̻̿n̶͎͝ġ̸̡ ̴̘͋ḯ̶̗t̸̩̂ ̴̤̌a̶̩̕g̸̼̈́a̴͇̽ì̷̫n̴̳̈.̸͓͒_

_bUt…_

_===_

_Basil was going to brush his teeth that morning, he thought it’d be normal. He didn’t expect to open the door and… see his brother, R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪, scrambling and dangling in the air. He freezes and tries to understand what he’s seeing. His brother has tied a noose around the shower curtain railing around the bath, and is dangling with it wrapped around his neck._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ is crying, screaming at him to leave him like this as he takes a step forward. He tries to kick at him, begging for him to just let him die. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ can’t though. Basil can see it, the noose isn’t even close to being able to constrict his throat. His field is keeping it away, but he can see the noose starting to fray under the weight as the field is defying R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪._

_Basil screams for help, Polly comes running and looks on in horror before going to try and cut him down. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ begs her to leave him alone, R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ insists he’s going to die here and put himself out of his misery for the sake of everyone else._

_Polly manages to cut him down, but R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ just breaks down crying as he hits the ground, curling up and flinching when Polly tries to hug him. Basil’s stuck standing there, dumbfounded, trying to comprehend what he just saw. He doesn’t want to know what he saw. He thinks of plants. Anything. Anything other than this but he can’t move. His body won’t listen. The noose is still around his brother’s neck as he’s laying there crying that he can’t even kill himself right._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ laments he can’t even feel the touch of someone without a lot of effort on his part compared to everyone else, that he’s too inhuman to be suffered to live. Basil… agrees. So is he, Basil decides._

_He finds himself moving without realising, towards the knife Polly threw to the otherside of the bathroom. Polly stops him, she knows what he’s about to do. He looks at her confused. Everything feels so dizzy all of a sudden. He wants to sleep._

_He wakes up in a garden instead of a bed, he’s confused for a while, but he thinks this place is safe. Fern is there, she kind of looks like his mother. She looks after him, fretting over him like he’s her whole world. He doesn’t know if this place is real or not. Fern’s evasive about it, she just is worried about him so he’s content to spend his time here._

_He woke up the next day in his own bed, he had been out for a while. Polly is confused when he asks about Fern, but says nothing. She’s worried about him, saying that he had been asleep after he fainted in the bathroom._

_R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ is gone. Polly couldn’t stop him from leaving and grandma’s bedridden. The house feels colder without his brother here. He’s sad for a time, he distracts himself, pretending everything is okay as he hangs with his friends._

_Weeks turn into months. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet. Fern’s as nice as ever, every time he goes to sleep she’s there. He has a friend there now too. Their name is Yew. They kinda look like R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪, but if he was happier. Fern mothers the two of them, they’re like her children._

_Something happens the day of Sunny’s and Mari’s recital. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet._

_Something made Sunny and Mari fight. Something made Mari fall down the stairs. His friend is distressed. Mari won’t wake up. Sunny is hurting a lot. His friend is in shock. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come to save them._

_Mari won’t wake up. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet. Mari won’t wake up. Sunny might get blamed for Mari’s death. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet. He tries to think of how to help Sunny. How to protect Sunny. Sunny is the baby of the group, therefore he had to be the big brother. What would big brother do???_

_He remembers what R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ was trying to do. He remembers how R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ taught him to tie those knots when they were decorating grandma’s house with more plants. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ isn’t here._

_They hang Mari’s body on the tree. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet. They make the mistake of looking back at Mari. Basil sees Mari’s eye staring at them, as if judging them for what they did. For a split second, Basil can see his brother’s frantic face instead of Mari’s. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet._

_Sunny’s parents find Mari’s body. Sunny is safe. Everyone thinks its a suicide. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet._

_Mom hasn’t come back yet. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ hasn’t come back yet._

_He insists that Sunny shouldn't abandon him, that they should be there for each other. Sunny shuts himself off. R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪… R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ is never coming back, is he?_

_Fern and Yew are there for him though._

_He starts to forget about his brother. He forgets all the good times they did together. All the memories that involved him, he tries to blot his brother out as much as he can._

_He doesn’t want to remember him. He starts to forget his mother’s face, he doesn’t remember how she used to calm him down as a little kid when his powers first started rearing their head._

_He starts to forget his father’s face. He starts to forget his brother’s name. He starts to forget everything about their old life. Polly understands maybe that talking about R̸̙͠o̵̫͋w̵̗͊a̴̻̔n̷̪ is a bad idea._

_She sees the fear in his eyes and the panic attacks that happens every time his name is mentioned. It’s hard to do anything using the botany book whenever he sees his name._

_He forgets why it affects him so badly. He starts to forget that Fern and Yew weren’t real._

_===_

Basil wakes up screaming.

He’s not dreaming anymore.

Polly runs to his side and hugs him, embracing him as he grips to her for dear life.

He remembered everything he didn’t want to remember. 

And it hurt. He cries incoherently as Polly embraces him, barely able to comprehend the turbulent emotions coursing through him. He wasn’t ready for this. It hurts so much. This aching in his chest.

This longing for family that he didn’t have.

The hurt of being abandoned and left to pick up the pieces.

He remembered about Rowan, and everything started to come back all at once. 

He remembered why he did what he did that day for Sunny. It hurts all the more that Sunny was hurting because of him.

It hurts because it’s his fault. It hurts because maybe it wasn’t the Something behind Sunny that killed Mari, maybe it was him by hanging her on the tree. 

She tries to calm him, and it starts to work.

She thinks it was just a nightmare, brought on by the near-death experience of drowning in the lake. He wished that’s all it had been. A nightmare.

He can feel her worry for him, she’s always been mothering towards him and yet he pushed her away, too afraid to let her get close. 

Too afraid to drag her into caring for someone who had committed such an unforgivable sin.

But he can feel the anger he forgot about. 

The anger he felt towards Sunny for abandoning him. 

The anger he felt towards Rowan for trying to kill himself and then running away. 

The anger he felt towards his mother for leaving them with their grandmother and never visiting.

The anger he felt towards his father for treating him like a monster for so many years.

It hurts so bad, this consuming rage and pain in his heart.

He’s not expecting to hear the knock at the door. Was it… Sunny? Was he coming to say… goodbye?

Polly goes to answer the door, he hugs the blankets close to him.

  
He tries to forget again, try and blank out his mind to try and force the memories back down. But something stops it, actively resists it. This pain wasn’t going away.  
  


He doesn’t want Rowan back. And all he can do is cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm probably going to end up doing a on-off schedule with updates for Psychometry and Orange Tea.  
> And yes, a Basil-centric chapter, since I decided I'd deal with my train of thought involving Basil and his brother I mentioned, and wondering how Basil's life would have gone in this setting... explaining why he would have still tried to hang Mari with a noose. And illustrating how much damage Omori's done to him and how much Basil's starting to crumble under the weight of what they did.


End file.
